The Tragedy Of Ocean Acidification

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.

Presented in an informal style of writing, “What Is Ocean Exploration and Why Is It Important?” inform its readers about the importance of researching and discovering the unknown ocean. It explains how much work is needed for the documentation of the ocean in varies areas, at the same time it addresses that scientist will be able to better understand the unknown oceans. For example, the time needed to obtain and study the result, as well as answer how the change in atmosphere will cause the ocean to react and affect life. The information obtain will also provide the baseline for scientist, researcher and government agencies to make important and dangerous decisions for the future. Sometime during research amazing things happen and new resources may be revealed. Besides informing about the ocean researching, the article also has a background idea as it is trying to encourage and get its readers interested into joining the field of ocean researching by emphasizing the role the ocean plays and how it will help ensure that ocean resources are well managed for future generations to enjoy.

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.

Hi Professor Searcy below is the link to the new paper that we briefly talked about in class. I haven't gotten a chance to look over it any further since we talked but maybe if you have some free time and have a strong desire to learn more about the effects that ocean acidification has on yellow tuna fish larvae you could glance it over just to see if there was any significance to them conducting two trials other than just for additional accuracy.

I am a water loving science geek teenager, who has dreamed of being a marine biologist since I was a child. My love of water started when I was four years old participating in my first swim lesson at my local YMCA, which I now work at as a lifeguard and swim instructor. My water passion has continued throughout my life advancing through swim lesson to club and high school swimming. One of my proudest moments was swimming with kids twice my age and keeping up the whole swim lesson, which for me was more of a practice. After that, swim lesson extremely tired, but could not wait to go back.

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.

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.

“The oceans are mostly intact, still wild enough to bounce back to ecological health” (Zimmer 1). It’s not just our corals that are dying but humans are also over harvesting. IT seems that people feel as if the ocean is way too big for us to be able to harm it, so a lot are unaware of the danger they are causing for the species in the water as well as what it could be doing to us. “Limiting the industrialization of the oceans to some regions could allow threatened species to recover in other areas of the ocean” (Zimmer 3). An interesting quote from Ocean Acidification: The Untold Stories

Ocean Acidification began over 200 years ago when the industrial revolution came along. This caused carbon dioxide levels to rise.

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.

I think that this video is maybe showing the cause that is the most doable to reach in the ones I have watched yet. Ocean acidification is also a great danger for us. It is because people doesn’t take care of their planet, just as climate changing and overpopulation are. It is horrible, just like the others. But, I think that maybe this one targets more than others specific classes of people. Because the ocean acidification is due in a good part to cellular respiration and the using of gas working machines on land, but not only. The people in the video were saying that 50% of the carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean. Well, I don’t for sure, but I can bet that the gas from boats that discharge tons of it per day in the ocean, it stays more

Sometimes called “climate change’s equivalently destructive twin”, ocean acidification is becoming more and more noticeable as the seawater’s changing chemistry begins to cause environmental and economical problems. When the Industrial Revolution began around 1760, fossil fuel–powered machines gained an immense amount of accessibility and popularity. Since then, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere have risen enough to change the pH of the world’s oceans. Given that the ocean absorbs almost half of the CO2 that is released into our atmosphere, ocean acidification is inclining into an even greater problem as fossil fuels become a more common energy source in our society. Higher acid levels can harm wildlife, disrupt the food chain, and negatively impact industries that rely on the ocean for business. Ocean acidification is causing growing dilemmas for both marine ecosystems and ocean-based economies. Although many companies and organizations are attempting to fix this problem, acidification is still threatening to cause increasingly harmful issues for the future.

Ocean acidification is caused when the CO₂ from the air enters into the ocean and bonds with sea water creating a toxic acid called carbonic acid. Carbonic acid reduces the natural pH levels of the water which as a result has been increasing the ocean acidity by 30%. This reduces the calcium concentration in the water, making it hard for crustaceans like crabs and prawns to build their shell. This means that they are more vulnerable to predators, and we can all figure out what happens when an entire species is vulnerable to predators. Air pollution is not the only factor that causes the water to become polluted. In fact, there are many more including fertilizer that gets washed into the oceans and also oils spills. According to the Water Project, 783 million people worldwide do not have access to clean and safe water, and according to the Worldwatch Institute, approximately 450 million kilograms of pesticides U.S. farmers use every year have now contaminated almost all of the United States' streams and rivers, and the fish living in them.

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