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海洋酸化使珊瑚礁变脆弱 Ocean acidification due to rising carbon dioxide levels will reduce the density of coral skeletons, making coral reefs more vulnerable to disruption and erosion, according to a new study of corals growing where submarine springs naturally lower the pH of seawater. The study, led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is the first to show that corals are not able to fully acclimate（适应） to low pH conditions in nature. ? People have seen similar effects in laboratory experiments, said coauthor Adina Paytan, a research scientist in the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. We looked in places where the corals are exposed to low pH for their entire life span. The good news is that they dont just die. They are able to grow and calcify（钙化）, but they are not producing robust structures. ? With atmospheric carbon dioxide rising steadily, the oceans are absorbing more carbon dioxide, which lowers the pH of the surface waters. Ocean acidification refers to changes in seawater chemistry that move it closer to the acidic range of the pH scale, although seawater is not expected to become literally acidic. Paytans team studied coral reefs along the Caribbean coastline of Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula where submarine springs lower the pH of the surrounding seawater in a localized, natural setting. The effect is similar to the widespread ocean acidification that is occurring as the oceans absorb increasing amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. ? Led by first author Elizabeth Crook, a graduate student in Paytans lab, the researchers deployed instruments to monitor seawater chemistry around the springs and removed skeletal cores from colonies of Porites astreoides, an important Caribbean reef-building coral. They performed CT scans of the core samples to measure their densities and determine annual calcification rates in the laboratory of coauthor Anne Cohen at W