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Letter

Nature Geoscience 2, 344–348 (1 May 2009) | doi:10.1038/ngeo500

Survival of mussels in extremely acidic waters on a submarine volcano

Verena Tunnicliffe , Kimberley T. A. Davies , David A. Butterfield , Robert W. Embley , Jonathan M. Rose & William W. Chadwick Jr

Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are causing ocean acidification, compromising the ability of some marine organisms to build and maintain support structures as the equilibrium state of inorganic carbon moves away from calcium carbonate. Few marine organisms tolerate conditions where ocean pH falls significantly below today|[rsquo]|s value of about 8.1 and aragonite and calcite saturation values below 1 (refs|[nbsp]|5,|[nbsp]|6).