Ocean acidification impairs shrimp’s ability to change sex

A team of researchers from the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn have found that the Hippolyte inermis shrimp, when raised on marine algae grown in acidic water, do not undergo the necessary sex change that is pertinent to their reproductive cycle. As published in PLOS ONE, H. inermis shrimp have two breeding seasons each year. Some males born in the spring rapidly develop into females with eggs in order to breed come fall. This sex change happens when male endocrine cells die as a result of the …