Should Modern Ocean Acidification And The Arctic Ocean Be An Incentive For Increased Carbon Reduction Efforts?

“Since the beginning of the industrial era, the ocean has absorbed some 525 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, presently around 22 million tons per day” (Ocean Portal, n.d). This number is expected to increase forevermore as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase and the effects of Climate Change worsen. At first, the idea of our oceans absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere may sound great, however, scientists have been quick to learn otherwise. High concentrations of carbon dioxide in oceans can have detrimental effects on the ocean chemistry and marine ecosystems (Hardt; Safina, 2008). Marine ecosystems are greatly complex and depend on every marine organism to function properly, any change can put the whole ecosystem at risk. For example, the increase of carbon dioxide in our oceans is responsible for the dissolving of “brittle star” skeletal parts, which has in effect caused food scarcity for many fish, crabs, shrimp, and other starfish (Leu, 2013). Furthermore, these marine ecosystems are very important to humans- being the primary food source for millions around the world and having an economic market worth trillions of dollars (Hardt; Safina, 2008). Part of keeping these ecosystems safe is to understand how they work and how projected changes can harm marine organisms.

The ocean is a very delicate ecosystem in which the slightest change of pH or chemical composition will result in devastating results. Between 25 and 40% of anthropogenic carbon emissions have entered the marine area since the industrial age (Sabine et

G., Cong-Qiang, L., WeiDong, Z., Minella, M., Vione, D., Kunshan, G., & ... Hiroshi, S. (2016). Reviews and Syntheses: Ocean acidification and its potential impacts on marine ecosystems. Biogeosciences, 13(6), 1767. doi:10.5194/bg-13-1767-2016

In 2004 The US Ocean Commission proposed several critical recommendations to address the health and management of our oceans. These recommendations range from better organization of current management offices to education of the public on issues pertaining to oceans and coastal areas. The importance of healthy oceans, waterways, and coastal areas cannot be denied. As humans we rely on these areas for food, fuel, materials for various products, and recreation just to name a few. Aside from the human aspect the health of the earth’s oceans is also bound to the air and land. Many other creatures throughout the world depend on a harmonious balance of the human species with the waters that surrounds us. The sooner we can find equilibrium with

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, mankind has slowly increased the total greenhouse gas emissions that enter the atmosphere. Over time, this pollution began to add up. Now planet Earth is struggling to maintain its health with the combined forces of global warming and ocean acidification looking to bring demise. From all portions of the world, troubling changes are emerging in the chemistry of our oceans’ waters. The oceans takes in around a quarter of the Carbon Dioxide that mankind releases into the atmosphere every year, so as atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels rise, so do the

Ocean acidification is becoming on of the most concerning subjects compared to global climate change. pH is the level of acidity, seven being neutral fourteen being most basic and zero being most acidic. The pH levels in the ocean are dropping and becoming more acidic. This is happening because of increasing carbon dioxide emissions. The ocean is taking in the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This article talks about how the Arctic Ocean is being affected by climate change. Because of greenhouse gas emissions, the PH of the water is lowering, its glaciers are melting which is causing a rise sea levels, and many species are becoming vulnerable. A mineral called aragonite, which is a form of calcium carbonate, is found in the water and helps organisms build their exoskeletons. As the Arctic’s water becomes more acidic, it loses more and more of this mineral, which threatens the lives of plankton, coral reefs, and shell-fish. The Artic is most vulnerable to acidification because northern ocean currents push the Pacific’s water into the Artic, which contains certain chemical properties that lead to lower pH. After much research, scientists

The ocean has became nearly 150% more acidic. Which the ocean has experienced in nearly 20 million years.

If certain precautions are taken to allow the ocean to recuperate and slowly heal, it can also help with problems caused by climate like severe storms, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, rising-sea levels and more. But in order to obtain this highly achievable solution, the first logical step is to educate those who know nothing about climate change, let alone ocean acidification. If more people were properly educated on this topic, knew about the simple steps and even smaller yet super effective ways to change the world, they would be motivated or inspired to help no matter how big or small their impact may be. This may seem a bit far-fetched and naive, but those who really do care, will take

In the modern industrial era, the levels of Carbon Dioxide produced are much more significant than in years before. Due to Carbon Dioxides involvement in ocean acidification, this is a major issue. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the pH of the ocean surface has fallen by 0.1 units. Although this may not seem significant, due to the logarithmic properties of the pH scale, this change signifies about a 30% increase in ocean acidity. If this issue isn’t addressed, there will be dire consequences for both marine organisms, as well as humans. To understand ocean acidification, some chemistry needs to be defined and understood.

Global warming doesn’t just have a major impact on the arctic but Researchers have said that the disappearing glaciers and other responses from the Arctic are increasing sea temperatures and decreasing PH levels (Pederson, 2014). This ends up effecting the diversity of species, food webs and productivities in the ocean (Pedersen, 2014). Ocean acidification in the Arctic is expected to increase in the coming years, having a large effect on many species (Agnalt et al 2013). Researchers have found that to ensure the heath of ocean organisms, the ocean must maintain the right chemical balance (cheek, 2014). The most essential and affective to maintain is sustaining a higher PH level, ensuring good internal cell functioning of many organisms (Cheek,

The ocean covers over seventy percent of the Earth’s surface, yet humans know very little about it and its contents. With over half of the species in the ocean still undiscovered, the ocean remains a mystery, with much more to be learned about what it possesses. The ocean is home to not only life, but to natural resources. Some of the resources possessed within the ocean are minerals, such as salt, sand, gravel, and some manganese, copper, nickel, iron, cobalt, gold, diamonds, and silver [1]. Valuable crude oil is drilled from the ocean floor, and the ocean continues to produce a significant amount of oxygen for the planet. One of

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.

Researchers of oceanic carbon sequestration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology presented their finding predictions and evaluations concerning carbon sequestration at the First National Conference on Carbon Sequestration. The researchers introduced that if we were to wait until there is definitive proof of harmful climate change, it will have been too late to develop large-scale solutions to the problem (Hoffert et al., 1998). On the opposing standpoint, a study at the University of Michigan has stated that carbon sequestration has many negative effects, such as mass death and the changing of the ocean’s chemical properties, and that they are large enough to possibly invalidate the benefits of this (Nye et al., 2007) perhaps world-revolutionizing discovery.

The world population is living, working, vacationing, increasingly conglomerating along the coasts, and standing on the front row of the greatest, most unprecedented, plastic waste tide ever faced. So, this is an opportunity to learn about the ocean from a big experiment that has already been put in place by humans. Over the last several decades, human activities have so altered the basic chemistry of the seas that they are now experiencing evolution in reverse: a return to the barren primeval waters of hundreds of millions of years ago.