What will happen to marine life if nuclear war breaks out?

According to research results published in Geophysical Research Letters by a Rutgers University research team, global cooling of nuclear war has adverse effects on marine life as well.

According to the research team, carbon in the air is dyed in the upper ocean due to the cooling that occurs after nuclear war, changing the chemical properties of seawater and exacerbating ocean acidification. Ocean acidification poses a problem in the modern age of continuing to burn fossil fuels. When oil or coal is burned, carbon dioxide in the air increases, so it dissolves in the sea and increases in quantity. Carbon dioxide dissolved in the sea reacts with water, causing the carbonic acid to lower the pH of the seawater, thus reducing the amount of carbonate ions in the seawater.

Why would it be difficult if the amount of carbonate ions in the sea decreased? This is because calcium carbonate, an important substance for living things, also decreases. As the ocean acidification progresses, the amount of calcium carbonate decreases, so it is difficult for shellfish and coral to form a shell to protect themselves, and the survival rate decreases.

What would happen if a nuclear war broke out somewhere on Earth? The scenario that the research team drew through computer simulation is as follows. Nuclear explosion dust covers the sky with great momentum and blocks sunlight. The entire planet is rapidly shrinking and the pH rises temporarily in the upper oceans. Ocean acidification seems to be putting a brake on it.

But that’s about the first five years. In the long term, global cooling reduces the amount of carbonate ions in the sea, so after 10 years of nuclear war, shellfish such as corals, clams, clams, and oysters in the sea cannot form shells or skeletons of marine animals with different shells and skeletons, and the survival rate decreases.

This study assumes several specific scenarios where nuclear war will occur on Earth. One is a small-scale nuclear war between India and Pakistan. Another is the devastating nuclear war between the US and Russia. According to the research team, according to the research so far, it was already known that if a nuclear war broke out, the agricultural industry would suffer fatal damage and a food crisis would come. But the problem is that the study also warns about whether people who survive a nuclear war can get food from the sea.

In future research, parameters such as changes in seawater temperature and salinity will be considered in addition to ocean acidification. Related information can be found here.