It's spring, the sun is shining and something is about to happen with the plankton in the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean.

Among the myriad creatures that populate our ocean, some stand out as having an outsized impact on the marine environment—shaping and maintaining habitats that themselves sustain countless other forms ...

The result? A frightening phenomenon that's making seawater more acidic, spelling disaster for many marine animals, from plankton and coral up the food chain to sea stars, salmon, sea otters, whales — ...