Ocean acidification to hit Puget Sound harder, study says

The waters of Puget Sound are more susceptible to ocean acidification and sliding faster into dangerous territory for its marine wildlife than other places around the world, a new study shows.

Should the trend continue, our marine wildlife and fisheries will likely suffer greatly years or decades earlier than previously anticipated, said Alex Gagnon, a chemical oceanographer with the University of Washington.

“This sounds pretty bad,” Gagnon wrote in an email. “And it is.”

Gagnon and a team of colleagues from UW published their novel study earlier this month, outlining their findings and serving as a new warning for the potentially catastrophic risk posed by climate change. They leaned on a series of chemical analyses but also a bit of detective work, delving further into the past than