Niba: The climate crisis is shrinking brain cells - in crabs, anyways.

Researchers found that Dungeness crab populations were declining, and it has to do with ocean acidification. Cause, see, as carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere, the ocean absorbs it, which makes the water more acidic, and researchers wanted to know what this extra acid did to the crabs.

Pacific Dungeness crabs can't see very well, so they have to smell for their food by flicking their antennae through the water. But crabs living in waters with higher acidity seemed to flick their antennae less often than expected, and their neurons were found to be 50% less responsive to odors. This is because their sensory neurons had physically shrunk by as much as 25%! It's the first time researchers have observed a change to crabs' neurons like this caused by carbon dioxide, which is why it's so shocking that -

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