Effects Of Ocean Acidification On Shellfish

Currently there is no saturation level above four in the world. If current trends continue, by 2060, there will be no location above 3.5 and by 2100, no place above 3. The negative trends are extremely concerning as the changing water levels are making the reefs’ survival more unlikely. The energy required for calcification increase, and thus calcification rates decrease. Because of the lack of growth, coral diversity plunges. Over half a million species have spent their life on coral reefs. Coral reefs are intricate exchange bazaars that pass nutrients to various animals. Without the reefs, this exchange would not be possible and the abating of the reefs contributes to the disappearance of the ecosystem as a whole. While ocean acidification is not the only reason for the withering reefs, it is the most detrimental. The effect of ocean acidification extends beyond just the coral reefs. This process affects marine animals’ tightly regulated internal chemistry such as metabolism, enzyme activity, and protein function. Ocean acidification alters the presence of key nutrients such as iron and nitrogen essential to animals. It will also make the ocean noisier (Kolbert 136-141). The implications of ocean acidification are interminable. Human realization is imperative to slow the rate at which ocean saturation is declining. The less carbon emissions released in the air, the less carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean which will inadvertently prove beneficial to the coral reefs, but also many other species dependent on the

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.

About half of that man-made CO2 has been absorbed by the oceans, increasing the concentration of carbonic acid, which has caused the oceans to become more acidic. Over the past 300 million years, ocean pH has averaged about 8.2. Today, it is around 8.1, a 25% increase in acidity over the past two centuries. That increase is projected to reach 150% by the end of this century, a rate of change not seen in 65 million years. A more acidic ocean inhibits shell growth in marine animals such as corals, crustaceans and mollusks, and disrupts entire food chains all the

“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.

Over the past couple of years, no other issue has received more attention in the marine community than ocean acidification. Marine biologists have been constantly working towards solving this issue and are hoping to see improvement’s very soon. Ocean acidification refers to the relentless growth in acidity of the Earth’s oceans. This on-going acidity has attributed to an important element; a constant rise of carbon dioxide levels in the Earth. The number one reason this issue is still happening is because of burning fossil fuels. In addition to burning fossil fuels, it has come to a point where it has enlarged a large amount of carbon dioxide by releasing it into the atmosphere. Chemists have taken this issue into attention that carbon enters the ocean and combines with seawater to fallout acid, which boosts the level of acidity. This process is known as ocean acidification.

With emissions from cars and deforestation at an all time high, so is the amount of carbon dioxide being dissolved into the world’s oceans. There are seemingly endless things people could be doing to help stop this, but don’t. This is because ocean acidification is one of the least advocated problems. Ocean acidification is one of the largest factors affecting today’s oceans and affects every ocean organism.

Since the Industrial Revolution greenhouse gas emissions have increased drastically. “ExxonMobil, the world's biggest oil company, knew as early as 1981 of climate change—seven years before it became a public issue” (Goldenberg 1). For goodness sakes, Exxon even spent millions of dollars for 27 years to promote climate denial. Later, when other scientists discovered that this really was harmful to the environment, they still sat idly by since the ocean was absorbing 25% of the gasses and reducing the threat. Boy, it really did come back to bite us in the bum.

Coral bleaching is happening because of the high sea temperatures. Coral bleaching leads to coral death and causes habitats to be loss to species in need. There is carbon dioxide is extremely concentrated in the atmosphere which increases the absorption of carbon dioxide in the ocean. Ocean acidity is subject to become a more frequent trend as the carbon dioxide continues to increase. The increase in ocean acidity affects the plankton, shellfish and mollusks. Coral are very sensitive to the acidity which makes it difficult for them to create a maintain its structure for species that need that

This threatens coral ecosystems, mussels, clams, and dozens of other species just on the ocean acidification side by weakening their protective barriers and altering the pH of the water. Polar bears, sea turtles, right whales, African elephants, and frogs are just some of the few animals being driven to extinction right now because of climate change. Obviously, these species are not dying off for no reason: the big bad guy is the results of rising levels of c02 due to human’s mass consumption of it for transportation, electricity, and industry. And scientists agree – “99 percent of currently threatened species are at risk from human activities,” says the Center for Biological Diversity, adding that global warming is one of the three main abusers. Ocean acidification is global warming’s “equally evil twin”, as Elizabeth Kolbert writes in her novel The Sixth Extinction. Clearly, human’s c02 waste is causing environmental issues that threaten and eventually extinguish plant and animal

Ocean acidification is the constant increase of acidity in the Earth’s oceans, caused by the unceasingly rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Anthropogenic CO2 is mainly emitted by the burning of fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and natural gas. Since the

Ocean acidification isn’t hard to understand because the name is self-explanatory but in simpler terms, carbon dioxide is pushed into the water become more acidic. Ocean acidification has much effect on how the flora and fauna of the sea adapt and live. The “subtle change in chemistry lowers the water’s saturation in aragonite” that Slezak (1) explains can be very effective how coral grow and build. Currently, oceans are staying at a rate of 3.8 aragonite saturation which isn’t entirely horrible but slezak (1) mentions many scientists believe “corals will stop building reefs when the saturation state drops below 2.5”. However, coral will just begin to ache once it hits the 2.5 point, but it’s “not a point of no return beyond to which they

Ocean acidification describes how the chemistry of the ocean is changing as a result of the increase in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The relationship between climate change and ocean acidification is as CO2 emissions end up dissolving into the ocean it makes the ocean more acidic. In addition to making the ocean more acidic it also reduces the availability of certain ions in the sea water. One of those being the carbonate ion and that’s what corals and other organisms need to build their shells are being impacted. Climate change is affecting the growth rates of a lot of organisms for example coral, microalgae, and plankton. Corals, microalgae, and plankton grow more slowly as the oceans become more acidic that there could be important

Even though ocean acidification doesn’t get quite as much attention as some things like rising sea levels, or global warming, ocean acidification is still 1 of the most serious effects of greenhouse gas emissions. Nearly a third of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, or about 22 million tons of CO2, is absorbed by the ocean every day. Scientists say this pollution has fundamentally changed ocean chemistry. Ocean acidification, a consequence of rising anthropogenic CO2 emissions, is poised to change marine ecosystems profoundly by increasing dissolved CO2 and decreasing ocean pH, carbonate ion concentration, and calcium carbonate mineral saturation state worldwide. These conditions hinder growth of calcium carbonate shells and skeletons by

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that we exhale in our daily lives. Plants use carbon dioxide to create oxygen that all mammals use. However, carbon dioxide can also change the chemistry of the ocean, this is often referred to as ocean acidification. The excess carbon dissolves into oxygen in the water, producing a chemical called carbonic acid. This acid causes the ocean to become more acidic. In the eighteenth century, the pH was 8.07 which was slightly basic. Currently, the pH is around 8.01 this is about a twenty-five percent increase in acidity. (National geographic) While this slight change may not seem outrageous, it is causing multiple marine life struggles. The acid melts the shells of pteropods causing a low supply of food that would support larger fish.

The main factors in this climate change are observed to be the increase in temperatures and the resulting acidification of the oceans. The previously mentioned changes and others in the report are readily observable, such as the uptake of anthropogenic carbon since 1750 that has led to the ocean becoming more acidic, with an average decrease in pH of 0.1 units and in some instances blatantly obvious, even to the average layperson. It is difficult to conclude what the rate of change in the future will be and the effects of observed ocean acidification on the marine biosphere.