What Influences The Acidification Of Natural Water?

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.

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

Sulfuric acid in polluted precipitation interferes with the fish's ability to take in oxygen, salt, and nutrients. For freshwater fish, maintaining osmoregulation, the ability to maintain a state of balance between salt and minerals in the organism's tissue, is essential to stay alive. As shown in the figure in the next page, acid molecules cause mucus to form in their gills preventing the fish to absorb oxygen well. Furthermore, a low pH level will throw off the balance of salt in the fish's tissue. Calcium levels of some fish cannot be maintained due to the changes in pH level. This causes a problem in reproduction: the eggs are too brittle or weak. Lacking calcium causes weak spines and deformities in bones. Sometimes when acid rainfall runs off the land, it carries fertilizers with it. Fertilizer helps stimulate the growth of algae because of the amount of nitrogen in it. However, because of the increase in the death of fish the decomposition takes up even more oxygen. This takes away from surviving fish. In other terms, acid rain does not help aquatic ecosystems in anyway.

-I am an ecophysiologist interested in studying the biological impacts of ocean acidification and other anthropomorphic (man-made) environmental stressors. I use field and laboratory experimentation and observation (utilizing ocean pH sensors) to predict how key marine species will respond to future ocean change. I am currently collaborating with the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery in Seward, Alaska. We are conducting ocean acidification experiments on juvenile geoduck clams with the aim of determining their potential vulnerability to ocean acidification.

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

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.

The article that I read studied how ocean acidification alters the ear stone size and density of cobia. Cobia is used frequently in studies “and had a significant ecologic and economic value.” The study looked at the implications for sensory functions by studying the ear stone (otoliths) size and density of larval cobia. The highest concern due to the effects of acidification on cobia is related to larval development. “During this phase, the sensory abilities of larval fishes are important determinants of survival and untimely influence the persistence of viable populations.” The article was published in 2013. Prior to its publication, studies about the affects of ocean acidification on ear stone sizes

Our Oceans are a vital bloodline carrying humans, water, and different types of animals and plants. Now more than ever our oceans are in peril due to the disastrous effects of Ocean Acidification. According to, NOAA Director Dr. Jane Lubchenco (2016), “Ocean Acidification is often referred to as global warming’s equally evil twin” (The Osprey pg.1). Ocean Acidification is an issue that the general public knows very little about yet is just as dangerous. Our Oceans are like a gigantic beaker with a mix of different solutions but because of ocean acidification this might disturb the balance for the planet. According to, Ludwig of The Science Teacher (2015), “OA is a harmful consequence of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and poses a threat to marine life” (p.42). The high amount of carbon dioxide creates a toxic environment for sea life. As a society, it is our duty to help restore our oceans and prevent the dangerous possibility of massive sea loss, economic downfall, and coral bleaching.

Ocean Acidification is the process of Carbon Dioxide entering the Ocean causing it to change its chemical structure. This leads to it become more acidic, affecting Marine and other living organisms negatively. The cause of this Global phenomenon are Power Plants who are producing 10 billion tons of CO2 every year, according to Science Daily. However, the impact of acidification does not stop there, organisms with Calcium Carbonate shells including crabs and mollusks have the potential to go extinct due to their shells being dissolved. But, the reality is that this does not just affect animals, humans can also be in great danger as well because of the Food Chain. These small organisms provide for fish which is a stable protein in many third

Ocean Acidification (OA) is a term used to describe significant changes to the chemistry of the ocean.It occurs when carbon dioxide gas (or CO2) is absorbed by the ocean and reacts with seawater to produce acid. Although CO2 gas naturally moves between the atmosphere and the oceans, the increased amounts of CO2 gas emitted into the atmosphere, mainly as a result of human activities (e.g. burning fossil fuels), has been increasing the amount of CO2 absorbed by the ocean, which results in seawater that is more acidic.This is a major problem to humans and marine life, this is a problem because when the carbon dioxide levels rise the wildlife in the ocean

Various physiological processes in fish regulate internal pH levels to compensate for acidifying environmental conditions, such as active bicarbonate accumulation (Fabry et al. 2008). These buffering processes can impact metabolic rates, growth rates, or fecundity in adult fish or become overwhelmed in early life-stage fish, causing mortality (Murray et al. 2014; Fabry et al. 2008). Responses are highly species-specific, and there is evidence that some estuarine fish can tolerate greater decreases in pH than pelagic species because they are often preadapted to daily fluctuations of pH (Murray et al. 2014). Early studies on the effects of acidified conditions on marine finfish used unrealistically low pH levels in order to identify the physiological responses (Fabry et al. 2008). Some recent studies have constrained pH levels in their experiments to those predicted in the coming century (Murray et al. 2014; Ishimatsu et al.

Over 70% of the Earth as we know it, is made up of five oceans ranging in depth from 12,000 feet all the way to the deepest trenches at 36,000 feet. Being so vast, there is a lot that we do not know about the world’s oceans, or how the species that live in it came to be. Our oceans provide some of the most extreme living conditions that a species can encounter in its life. But surprisingly, several species can survive and thrive in these extreme environments due to adaptations throughout the decades that have allowed them stay in these places without having to relocate as a whole. Some of these harsh conditions include; extreme amounts of pressure (deep sea), extreme darkness (deep sea and caves), increasing water temperatures, and extreme alkaline environments with pH’s ranging from 8.4-10. Knowing what we know about fish species, most fish can only successfully survive in a very controlled temperature range, and can only see up to a certain depth. But with some species, they have been able to adapt to these different extremes and are currently living in them with little to no struggle.

I predict that the impacts of human activity on ocean acidification will increase. Humans activity of fossil fuel combustion is causing carbon to be added into the environment and into oceans. Shown in the article Ocean Acidification: The Other CO2 Problem, “But all signs indicate that unless humans are able to control and eventually eliminate our fossil fuel emissions, ocean organisms will find themselves under increasing pressure to adapt to their habitat's changing chemistry or perish.” This text shows that human activity has a great impact on ocean acidification in saltwater ecosystems, because the use of deforestation and fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide. A solution to the impacts of human activity on ocean acidification is to reduce

The purpose of this project was to demonstrate the effects of ocean acidification and temperature increase on shellfish. Ever since the Industrial Revolution began, carbon dioxide emission in the air has greatly increased, and around the same time, the temperature of the ocean, along with the atmosphere, showed a similar trend. Scientists claimd that ocean acidification and temperature increase is deadly to marine life, including shellfish. It was hypothesized that the mass of the shells of shellfish will decrease due to acidification and temperature increase because acid is known to break down bones and because high temperature can damage skin cells.

Before even going into the review first it is needed to know, what is pH or what does it even mean? It is a measure of the hydrogen ion concentration of a solution, high concentration of hydrogen ions and has a low pH (“What is pH?” n.d.). Solutions with low concentrations of hydrogen ions have a high pH. Rain has a pH of 5.6. Main pollutants are responsible for this or acid depositions are sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Possible affects are for one, when pH approaches five, non-desirable species of plankton and mosses may begin to invade, and population of bass will disappear. Second when the pH is below a five, fish populations again will begin to disappear, the bottom is covered with un-decayed material, and mosses may dominate near shore areas. The third affect is when below 4.5 water is devoid of fish. Fourth, aluminum ions attached to minerals in nearby soil can be released into lakes, killing fish, and stimulating excessive mucus formation. Finally, most chronic effects of increased acidity in water is interference with