GEL 144 - Winter 2008
Due Friday, March 14 - posted 2/20/08

Assignment #3

 Please read the paper by J. C. Orr et al., 2005, Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact  on calcifying organisms.  Nature 437:  681-686. 

 Based on this paper, write a two-page essay on how a middle Paleozoic marine ecosystem of your choosing (coral reef, shelf, mud-flat) would be altered if the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide decreased.  How would it affect prey defense, predatory weapons, rate of calcification by plankton, etc.?  Pick one process or one ecosystem on which to concentrate, and see me for further references once you have chosen a topic.

The paper is due Friday, 14 March.