Consequences Of Ocean Ecidification

Ocean acidification is a term that describes significant changes to the chemistry of the ocean. It happens when carbon dioxide gas is absorbed by the ocean and reacts with seawater to produce acid. This mechanism is happening in the ocean that over time will affect the coral species.

Ocean Acidification is a process that occurs everyday and majorly affects our planet, but most people don’t even realize it exists. Though it can technically be argued that Ocean Acidification has some benefits for the planet, most of the time the effects of this process are very poor and negatively affect the entire world around us. Human evolution has played a major role in contributing to Ocean Acidification. Whenever humans use energy we release Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere or also known as CO2. This can be in the form of burning fossil fuels from the ground or the removal of national forest by burning. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, which means whenever we can emit it in large quantities or unnatural amounts it can have negative effects on the atmosphere. These high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere result in climate change and more specifically Ocean Acidification. Ocean Acidification occurs when excess Carbon Dioxide is absorbed into the ocean. When this process takes place it can completely disturb the chemical balances of the water. For example, it can reduce pH levels, Biodiversity, and the abundance of calcifying species.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, mankind has slowly increased the total greenhouse gas emissions that enter the atmosphere. Over time, this pollution began to add up. Now planet Earth is struggling to maintain its health with the combined forces of global warming and ocean acidification looking to bring demise. From all portions of the world, troubling changes are emerging in the chemistry of our oceans’ waters. The oceans takes in around a quarter of the Carbon Dioxide that mankind releases into the atmosphere every year, so as atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels rise, so do the

Especially in the last two hundred years, carbon dioxide has increased in the atmosphere. This is happened in effect of the constant burning of fossil fuels and land use change. In the ocean, carbon dioxide reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid.The ocean actually absorbs thirty percent of all of the carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere. When

“How acidification threatens ocean from the inside out: Carbon dioxide emissions are making the oceans more acidic, imperiling the growth and reproduction of species from plankton to squid”, by Marah J. Hardt and Carl Safina addresses the dangers of increasing acidity in the ocean caused by carbon dioxide. Hardt, a research scientist and writer, is the founder of Ocean Ink. Safina, an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University, is the founding president of the Blue Ocean Institute.

Ocean acidification is known as a significant and destructive issue of a substantial amount of carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere and settles in the ocean. Humans are not able to see or feel this happening based on the fact its process only occurs underwater. Each day the ocean consumes twenty two million tons of carbon dioxide, which originates from burning fossil fuels and destruction of park trees. Carbon dioxide fuses with water, which then generates it to become

Carbon dioxide mixes with the water from the ocean. CO2 commonly emits out of engines or from factory production, trapping inside of clouds and eventually falling as acid precipitation.

When carbon dioxide enters the ocean, reacts with seawater, producing carbonic acid, which increases the acidity of water.  Increasing carbon dioxide emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels for energy, have made ocean acidification 30% increase compared to pre-industrial levels. This has caused the pH of surface waters of the oceans has fallen 0.1 units.  If carbon emissions continue to increase at the current

For the past 200 years, the rapid increase in atmospheric CO2 continues to be produced by, the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, industrialization, cement production, and other land-use changes. The ocean absorbs much of this excess CO2 through air-sea gas exchange, resulting in changes in seawater chemistry. Due to human-made emissions, the CO2 content of the oceans has dramatically increased and is gradually acidifying the surface waters. As a result of human-made emissions, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and oceans has increased dramatically during recent decades. In the ocean, the accumulating CO2 is gradually acidifying the surface waters, making it difficult for shelled organisms such as corals and certain open sea plankton to build their calcium carbonate skeletons. Since this process affects the functioning of several marine ecosystems, it has been massively studied in recent years. However, getting an accurate measure is complicated because the effect of ocean acidification on the rates of calcium produced by marine organisms is extremely variable and its species specific. Since scientists incline to use local and site-specific field measurements, treating reef environments and open sea environments separately, their measurements reflect the local response of individual organisms to elevated CO2 levels, leaving out the overall picture.

As carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, increased concentrations of it have led to an amplified greenhouse effect. More solar infrared radiation is re-emitted and absorbed by the Earth, causing surface temperatures to rise. Therefore, the density of the surface waters will decrease, which means there is a greater

The industrial revolution began in the 18th century, which gave rise to an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. CO2 is released into the atmosphere from car engines, and the burning of fossil fuels in factories. About 30% of the CO2 in the atmosphere is absorbed by the oceans (Meinshausen, et al., 2011). CO2 reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid (H2CO3) which then forms bicarbonate (HCO3-) by releasing a Hydrogen ion (H+). CO2 can accumulate in the ocean from cellular respiration, as well as when an organism dies it sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor and releases CO2 with decomposition. The higher the H+ concentration in a liquid the lower the pH of that liquid. Ocean acidification is the phenomenon of CO2 being absorbed by seawater and the water becoming more acidic. The atmospheric level carbon dioxide is expected to rise to as high a 900 ppm by the year 2100 (Meinshausen, et al., 2011).

Ocean acidification and temperature change has recently become a growing concern due to increased levels of anthropogenic CO2. Polar regions maintain a high affinity for the dissolution of atmospheric CO2 into the water due to the cold temperatures. This combined with upwelling of CO2 rich waters provides an environment that is vulnerable to increased ocean acidification as well as warming water temperatures. It is estimated that the annual pCO2 increase of the Southern Ocean has been 2.13±0.64 µatm per year, which is the most rapid ocean acidification in the world (Dawson et al., 2011). The rate of warming in this ocean has been observed at double the rate of global warming and it is predicted that the temperature will increase

Coral reefs were among the first ecosystems recognized as being vulnerable to the increasing ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is linked to the carbon dioxide that is released to the atmosphere and the reaction with seawater. The reaction of carbon dioxide with water forms weak carbonic acid (H2C03) that leads to increased acid levels in the ocean. This process uses the chemicals that coral reefs need to build their calcium skeleton thus interfering with their ability to grow normally. For instance, in the 1997-1998 El Nino-Southern Oscillation, 16% of all the tropical coral reefs died due to acidification.

Carbon dioxide buildup is caused by both natural and anthropogenic causes. Carbon Dioxide is naturally created by processes such as volcanic eruptions and naturally occurring forest fires. Humans cause the gases to build up by the burning fossil fuels. This can be caused in a multitude of ways, including that of deforestation, industrial production and common transportation. These processes release many natural gases into the atmosphere, causing a blanket of greenhouse gasses. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and oxygen help

Anthropogenic emissions over the past 200 years have caused ocean acidity levels to increase by 40 %(Ocean Studies Board, 2010). Without major intervention and significant reduction of the global carbon footprint this will result in severe and irreversible damage to ecosystems and organisms ocean-wide.