Ocean acidification eats away at tiny sea creatures

Healthy pteropod: Tiny, translucent snails, also known as sea butterflies, provide food for salmon, herring and other fish. Seen under a microscope, this one's shell is smooth. - MCT

Souring seas caused by carbon dioxide emissions are dissolving a vital part of the ocean food web.

It didn’t take long for researchers examining the tiny sea snails to see something amiss. The surface of some of their thin outer shells looked as if they had been etched by a solvent. Others were deeply pitted and pocked.