What is Ocean Acidification (by Dylan Escobar)
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Ocean Acidification occurs when excess carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed by ocean water, causing chemical reactions to occur that reduce both the pH and the calcium carbonate minerals in the water ("What Is Ocean Acidification?", n.d.). Since calcium carbonate minerals are the building blocks for the skeletons and shells of many marine organisms, organisms to build their skeletons and shells with this substance. However, continued ocean acidification is causing the level of these minerals in many parts of the ocean to decline, which affects the ability of these organisms to produce and maintain healthy shells ("What Is Ocean Acidification?", n.d.).
Since the dawn of the industrial revolution during the early 1800s, the use of fossil fuels has contributed to the increase in human industry and advancement. At the same time, this use of carbon based fuels has created emissions of billions of tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere. Scientists now understand that about half of this man-made CO2 has been absorbed directly into the ocean water. WHile this had been a benefit by slowing the rate of climate change that these greenhouse gas emissions would have caused by remaining in the atmosphere, new research is discovering that the introduction of massive amounts of CO2 into the oceans is affecting the balance of the water chemistry and having a negative result on the life cycles of many shell-forming animals including corals, oysters, shrimp, and lobster ("Ocean Acidification -- Pristine Seas -- National Geographic", n.d.).
At first, scientists thought that this might be a benefit because less carbon dioxide in the air means less carbon dioxide to warm the planet. But eventually they realized that this slowed warming has the cost of changing the ocean’s chemistry. When carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater, the water becomes more acidic and the ocean’s pH (a measure of how acidic or basic the ocean is) drops. Even though the ocean is large, if enough carbon dioxide is absorbed, it can have a major impact. For example, In the past 200 years alone, ocean water has become 30 percent more acidic—faster than any known change in ocean chemistry in the last 50 million years. (“Ocean Acidification?", 2014).
Future predictions indicate that the oceans will continue to absorb carbon dioxide and become even more acidic. Estimates of future carbon dioxide levels, based on business as usual emission scenarios, indicate that by the end of this century the surface waters of the ocean could be nearly 150 percent more acidic, resulting in a pH that the oceans haven’t experienced for more than 20 million years ("What Is Ocean Acidification?", n.d.).
And while the chemistry is predictable, the effects and the biological impacts are not. What we do know is that things are going to look different, and we can't predict in any detail how they will look. Some organisms will survive or even thrive under the more acidic conditions while others will struggle to adapt, and may even go extinct. Beyond lost biodiversity, acidification will affect fisheries and aquaculture, threatening food security for millions of people, as well as tourism and other sea-related economies (“Ocean Acidification?", 2014).
