Ocean Acidification : The Negative Effects Of The Oceans And Climate Change

The rising carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities continues to affect our atmosphere, resulting in global warming and climate change. This carbon dioxide is also altering the chemistry of the oceans, causing them to become more acidic. From scientists and marine resource managers, to policy and decision-makers, there is growing concern that the process called ocean acidification could have drastic consequences on marine ecosystems. Such as altering species composition, disrupting marine food webs and ecosystems and harming fishing, tourism and other human activities connected to the sea.

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.

Oceans help aid the globe keep its carbon cycle in balance, how can it be expected to do that when carbon dioxide is ruining the oceans now? As for the future, the ocean will continue to become more acidic as long as carbon dioxide is being put out in the atmosphere. If this continues the long term consequences are still unknown. They will no be good for the ocean, the organisms that house it, and life on land, like us. Many people think we get most of the oxygen we need from plants and trees. But, we really get most of the oxygen we need from the ocean. More the reason to take care of our

This tragedy is called ocean acidification. Ocean Acidification is the rapid decrease in the pH, (pH is the measure of ocean acidity,) of the Earth's ocean, caused by its intake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This rapid increase of carbon dioxide is directly coming from the large consumption of fossil fuel that humans constantly release into the air for our own selfish reasons. As we increase the level of carbon dioxide that is being released in a short amount of time, we are letting small amounts seeps into the earth's oceans through the continual water cycle. When the carbon dioxide seeps into the oceans, it begins to turn into carbonic acid. In small amounts, carbonic acid is not seriously harmful and is usually part of the ocean

Hardt, M.J. and C. Safina. 2009. 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. Scientific American 301:66-73.

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.

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

The increased levels of acid inhibits the ability of marine animals which disrupts life within the systems food web. One species severely impacted by rising temperatures and excess carbon dioxide (ocean acidification) is reefs, in particular coral reefs. The higher temperatures lead to coral bleaching which is a stress mechanism that expels the colourful algae that inhibit them. Some individuals are able to recover, however many die resulting in an entire ecosystem to virtually disappear. If bleaching persists other damaging diseases will affect corals such as black band disease, white plague, white band disease and white pox which all have the ability to kill the coral which could potentially lead to the death of the extended ecosystems it

Ocean acidification means an ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth’s oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Around 30-40% of the CO2 released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes.

Anthropogenic activity has led to greatly increased emissions of greenhouses gases. Increased temperatures, acidification and stratification are all affected by increased carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. These symptoms of climate change have direct and indirect effects on to marine ecosystems, all of which start at the major primary producers of the oceans: phytoplankton.

Ocean acidification is a phenomenon whereby progressively less alkaline the ocean, the surface waters of the oceans is currently slightly alkaline where the average degree of concentration of hydrogen ions nearly 8.1. And haven't experienced marine acidification rate like this for several million years. ocean acidification due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolves in the oceans. And this process largely independent of climate, despite the high temperature of the sea

The article of “ocean acidification” has been written by Elizabeth Kolbert for the magazine of National Geographic. In this magazine article, the author has expressed grave concerns regarding the increasing problem of acidification of oceans. The author is of the view that the issue of ocean acidification should be taken very seriously as this problem is irreversible and, if it occurs, it cannot be controlled.

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.

Climate change causes an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide which dissolves in the ocean and leads to ocean acidification. One third of all the carbon dioxide that is produced due to human activities has been absorbed by the oceans since 1800 (Haw, 2013). Half of all carbon dioxide produced from the