The effects of different pH conditions have been investigated on sea urchin larval development following exposure of embryos to controlled, though changing, decreases or increases of seawater pH. The pH of filtered natural seawater was initially adjusted with 1 N HCl of 1 N KOH and then was altered back to its normal values (8.0-8.2) by the exchange with atmospheric CO2 and subsequent carbonic acid equilibrium. During cultures, pH was regularly monitored. When developing embryos were reared in different pH conditions, larval differentiation was sharply affected by an apparently moderate pH decrease, such as 0.5 pH units. However, even pH decreases as small as 0.2 pH units from the normal value showed reproducible damage to embryogenesis. This damage appeared to be early and irreversible, since the exposure of cleaving embryos resulted in more severe developmental defects than exposure of posthatching blastulae. Moreover, mitotic abnormalities were observed following early exposure of embryos to decreased pH. Increased pH, up to 8.6 (approximately 0.5 pH units above normal value), failed to exert any adverse effect on subsequent development. Moreover, an initial pH increase (8.5-8.7) resulted in the final adjustment of culture pH to 8.1-8.2, thus providing optimal conditions for rearing embryos. Two attempts to stabilize culture pH were performed by decreasing gaseous exchanges or by using Tris as a buffering agent. Both approaches appeared to be impractical, thus ruling out any further attempts. The results point out the hazards of acid contamination in restricted bodies of seawater, leading to apparently "moderate" decreases in pH, which can result in severe damage to some marine organisms, both adult and larval forms.