Chemical Breakdown Of Ocean Acidification
The ocean is a very fragile ecosystem. Fragile to the point where any little bit of a change chemically can be like "a bull in a china shop" . A .01 chemical change could effect the oceans acidity by 30% or more depending on which chemicals are being released. However with the mass amounts of C02 being relaesed the C02 then drops into the ocean where it dissolves Once dissolved in seawater, CO2 reacts with water, H2O, to form carbonic acid, H2CO3: CO2 + H2O ↔ H2CO3. Carbonic acid dissolves rapidly to form H+ ions (an acid) and bicarbonate, HCO3-(a base). Seawater is naturally saturated with another base, carbonate ion (CO3−2) that acts like an antacid to neutralize the H+, forming more bicarbonate. The net reaction looks like this: CO2 + H2O + CO3−2→ 2HCO3 This process is what happens when carbon is released into the atmosphere. On a more basic level the C02 that we are realsing into the atmosphere gets absorbed into the water which reacts with the chemicals in the salt water and greatly effects how the chemical balance has been in the ocean for thousands of years.
RK
As you Can see from the above graphs the oceans level of C02 has increased which has greatly effected the Ph levels of the ocean, Chemically the ocean has been destroyed with very little hope of restoration unless we stop the mass amounts of C02 being produced.