Distilled Water Affecting The Ocean

What is your PH level? You don’t know? Well it should be around 7.35 to 7.45 according to AlteredStates.net. PH stands for power of hydrogen. PH level is a measurement of the hydrogen ion concentration in the body. Now imagine you’re peeling an orange with a cut on your finger. When the juice from the orange comes into contact with your cut, it sends a burning feeling to your brain. This occurs because an orange has a PH level of around 2-3 which is acidic burning unprotected cells around the cut. Now imagine you’re stepping into the ocean which has been made acidic causing your cells to burn. This is called Ocean Acidification. Ocean Acidification is the change of our beautiful ocean water into acid. The Oceans acidity is rapidly increasing in certain areas in the pacific due to our actions on this planet, namely Carbon Dioxide Pollution. It is not only endangering ocean life but also Human life on Earth. It is linked to Global Warming but Ocean Acidification is a problem that stands on its own. Therefore, it is evident that we must take action about Ocean Acidification.

Ocean pollution is caused by many things,plastic,humans, and oil spills, we are trying to stop this. So many people just put the plastic in the ocean and people are trying to stop them. Two billion people within 30 miles of the coast create 100m of coastal plastic waste. We can help by reducing plastic in waste stream, and try to stop pollution. Another way we can help is by recycling (Doc.1). We cause pollution to by dumping trash and garbage onto beaches. We have to help protect oceans by monitoring the water to see if people can go swimming (Doc.2). The oceans have to stay healthy because they are a habitat to animals (OI). Another reason we have to keep oceans healthy because they are a big food source for us (OI). In

Oceans cover approximately 75% of Earth 's surface and are vital to this planet and the people who inhabit it. Oceans provide food, natural resources, and recreation for nearly everyone in this world. Unfortunately Oceans have been receiving mass amount of pollutants including oil spills, toxic waste dumping, and industrial dumping. These pollutants will have negative impacts on the wildlife in the ocean, as we are seeing already with the Coral Reefs, and soon enough it will begin to affect our lives as well.

Projected changes of pH over the next 100 years due to Ocean acidification effects phytoplankton-doubling time.

Lives are being lost and habitats are being damaged because of carless people. Ocean pollution has a big amount of effects on the wildlife. There are also a lot of different kinds of pollution, from noise to offshore drilling. There is a lot of different ways that the trash gets in the ocean causing population. Pollution in the ocean is killing animals and endangering habitats; this is also having major effects on tourism. It’s more than just trash in the ocean and it causes more problems than everyone thinks.

According to Ocean Portal, “in the past 200 years alone, ocean water has become 30 percent more acidic”. The rapid growth of acidity within the oceans is dramatically impacting ecosystems- even the shells of animals are disintegrating in the acid contaminated seawater.

The issue on ocean acidification is popularizing but what exactly is ocean acidification? It occurs when carbon dioxide is absorbed in the ocean’s waters from then on a series of chemical reactions take place which lowers the ocean’s water pH, carbonate ion concentration, as well as the saturation states of the calcium carbonate minerals ( “What is Ocean Acidification?”). Since we are addressing the issue on ocean acidification we will touch on the marine creatures that are harmed and will possibly be harmed due to the acidification of the seawater. A background of the chemicals involved as well the beneficial usage of the chemicals will be described in order to address the solution to this environmental problem.

Computer model projections demonstrate that even with optimistic scenarios, an additional reduction in pH of 0.2-0.3 is predicted by the end of the century (Caldeira & Wickett, 2005). While the chemical processes of OA are largely understood, a considerable research gap exists with regard to the biological and socio-economic consequences of these changes (Brandner, Narita, Rehdanz, & Tol, 2014). The urgency of addressing this issue increased significantly following scientist’s discovery of regions identified as “ocean acidification hotspots” where changes in pH are now occurring at an accelerated rate (NOAA PMEL Carbon Group,

At the start of essay, the author has introduced the concept of a pH scale in order to measure the extent of acidification in a water source. At 0, which is the lower end of scale, strong acids exist whereas at 14, which is the upper end of pH scale, strong bases exist. Sea water should have a pH of around 8.2 which has been reduced to 8.1 due to the release of CO2 in oceans. This indicates that the acidic nature of sea water has increased to about 30%. The author has predicted that if this trend continues, then by 2010, sea water would be 150% acidic

The potential impacts of ocean acidification pose several threats on marine organisms and ecosystem processes. Many marine species are sensitive to changes in ocean. The effects of acidification on individual species will have ripple effects throughout the ecosystem. So, species that might not be directly affected by acidification may still be influenced by ocean acidification if their predators or prey are affected by changes in water chemistry. These food web interactions are difficult to predict, and may play out in unexpected ways. Acidification’s potential effects on marine ecosystems are an economic concern as well. These issues need to be addressed because they are all issues today, not the future. Ocean acidification may also be threatening not only marine life but our own way of life as humans. Although ocean acidification may not directly impact specific organisms, it’s impact will have a ripple effect that is felt in our own ecosystem we live in today. Threatening the health of

pH is important as a balanced pH level will ensure a stable and healthy ecosystem. The main contributor to increasing pH levels is carbon dioxide. It is suggested the with the ever increasing polution of carbon dioxide from factories, that man is contributing to increasingly unhealthy levels of pH. This is a result of the carbon being released into the air, foring an acidic rain with a pH level of around 5. Once this rain lands into the ocean, the sorounding water’s pH level increases, causing problems for Marine life in the area. Figure 3 on the previous page (page 5) is a clear diagram explaing this acidic rain theory. Unballanced levels of pH can result in consequences such as difficultilty in fish off spring hatching, and bleaching of coral. It is important that human activity is not contributing to unhealty levels of pH, destroying the marine

Ocean pollution is one of the most urgent issues in our world today. The ocean is crucial to our ecosystem and it is being severely damaged at an alarmingly increasing rate. In this paper I will educate about the role the ocean plays in our beautiful Earth, why it is being so widely ignored and dismissed, the causes of pollution, and its effects on animals and humans alike.

The world we live in is so vast and exciting. Seventy percent of our world is liquid water we call the ocean. In the ocean there are many creatures that each are unique in their own way. However, it is possible that in our lifetime, many marine organisms will become endangered or possibly extinct. The loss of these mejestic marine creatures will be caused mainly because of human advancements in which fossil fuels are used to produce energy. Biodiversity is greatly affected by this increase in acidity. As the ocean acidifies, multiple social and economic issues arise. As humans, we rely on the ocean for almost everything. Much of our food, clothing, cleaning products and cosmetics come from the ocean. With the loss of

Our oceans take a large beating every day by the extremely large amount of pollution humans produce. We easily dump our waste into the oceans to dispose of our problem, but this small and simple solution is creating an even bigger problem. The way humans dispose of their wastes is causing the death of our beloved marine life. Not only are we killing off our animals, our food source, and our resources, we are also minimizing our usable water.

The ocean’s pH has a direct negative correlation to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As the carbon dioxide increases in the atmosphere, the ocean’s pH drops. The average pH shift is 0.1 in the past 200 years (Cooley et al., 2015). That number may seem insignificant, however, on a scale of 1 to 14, it is much more influential to the environment. Predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, 2017) show a more negative impact with an decrease of up to 30% in pH and increase in ocean’s acidity in the upcoming century. This increase in acidity has destructive impacts on the coral reefs themselves and the biological impacts on species of shellfish and pteropods. Just as humans need calcium to maintain a strong skeleton, organisms such as coral, pteropods, and various species of shellfish including mollusks, starfish and sea urchins need calcium carbonate to preserve a strong shell used for shelter and protection. The calcium carbonate deteriorates with an increase in acidity. It makes the shells and skeletons brittle and compromises fertilization and settlement of new coral and pteropods as well.