There's a growing amount of research and speculation about how global warming might affect Maine's lobsters.

Warmer ocean temperatures could, some believe, mean the lobster's prime habitat will shift northward and lead to more stress and disease off the coast of New England.

Now there's something else for lobsters and the lobster fishery to worry about down the road.

The same carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere that scientists say is helping to drive climate change also is making the oceans more acidic, according to researchers. Past research found that acidification eats away at the shells of marine animals. But a new study by scientists in Australia and Sweden reports that lobsters, sea urchins, mussels, oysters and other invertebrates could have real trouble reproducing in a more acidic ocean.

Rising acidity takes a toll on sperm and eggs in the open ocean, which is clearly a problem for animals that fertilize their eggs externally. Sea urchin sperm, for example, gets released into the open ocean and has to swim to find and fertilize eggs. Lobsters actually mate face to face, but the female will carry her mate's sperm on her abdomen until she releases her eggs.

The scientists say changes in acidity this century will significantly hinder fertilization by urchins and other creatures, according to this story from Reuters.

"What we have now is evidence that the world's marine life is far more sensitive to ocean acidification than first suspected, and that means our oceans may be very different places in the not-too-distant future," said Jane Williamson from Macquarie University, the lead researcher.

E-mail this entry to a friend