Multimedia Gallery
Pteropod (Image 1)
A floating pteropod (from the Greek word meaning "wing-foot"), captured from the northeastern Pacific Ocean.
Drifting with currents in the open ocean, these tiny swimming marine snails are an important source of food for fish, whales and other marine animals. Also called "sea butterflies" because of their wing-like swimming appendages, pteropods build shells made of calcium carbonate, similar to those of garden snails but thinner and more delicate.
At the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), scientist Gareth Lawson and colleagues are studying pteropods, investigating how these planktonic molluscs are being affected by ocean acidification. The world's ocean waters have gradually become more acidic. Ocean acidification is a direct consequence of increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere, brought on as a result of human-caused CO2 emissions. WHOI researchers are comparing pteropods in ocean regions with normal acidity to those in regions already showing acidification.
In addition to his research, Lawson collaborated with sculptor Cornelia Kavanaugh, whose sculptures of pteropods were shown in the exhibit "The Gorgeous Shapes of Sea Butterflies" at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History's Sant Ocean Hall. (Date of Image: Aug.-Sept. 2012) [Image 1 of 4 related images. See Image 2.]
Credit: Image courtesy of Nancy Copley; ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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