Ocean acidification

Ocean acidification can be defined as the change in ocean chemistry driven by the oceanic uptake of chemical inputs to the atmosphere, including carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur compounds (Guinotte and Fabry, p.320). Today, the overwhelming cause of ocean acidification is anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide. Over the past two-hundred years, the rapid increase in anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide has directly led to decreasing ocean pH through air-sea gas exchange, driven by the land-use…

the coral provides the algae with a protected environment (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2017). B) What is ocean acidification, and how does it affect…

Can We Stop Ocean Acidification? It is hard to believe but, ocean acidification is caused by us. We cause it by what we normally do, breathe. We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, we can’t stop ourselves from breathing. But, we can do many other things to stop ocean acidification. Other examples are, fossil fuels and factories. Ocean acidification is a big problem not only in America, but all around the world too. We know the cause of this great environmental problem, now, we just have to…

often described as the rainforests of the ocean. Coral reefs have over a million species with many that are not yet identified and described. Their ecosystems are highly vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification and global warming. Ocean acidification occurs when the ocean carbon dioxide and produces carbonic acid. This causes the gradual destruction of the exoskeletons of many marine organisms including the coral reefs’. The warming of the ocean causes coral bleaching. The overheated…

coral cover (Grech et al., 2015). Ocean acidification is one of the primary causes of this loss and is arguably one of the most detrimental consequences of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem. With increased burning of fossil fuels, more carbon dioxide collects in the atmosphere, increasing the planet’s temperature. Approximately 30% of this carbon dioxide dissolves in the oceans, producing carbonic acid and lowering the pH levels of all oceans (Waters,…

millions of year prior to industrialization, ocean pH levels remained stable; however, high levels of anthropogenic carbon emissions in the near 200 years since the industrial revolution, have caused fundamental chemical changes to occur in marine water that have driven (and continue to drive) marine water pH levels downward – a process referred to as ocean acidification (Orr et al., 2005). In this paper, I will present a discussion of ocean acidification. Specifically,…

rich bio-diverse habitats of our oceans will cease to exist. We continue to actively destroy a food chain system kept in balance by millions of years of evolution. There are many things contributing to the destruction of our food chain, one of them being over fishing; throwing further off balance the already struggling underwater world of the world’s oceans. Ninety percent of large predatory fish, including tuna, swordfish, and sharks are now gone from our oceans and ninety percent of large…

atmosphere involves injecting it into the ocean at great depths, where the gaseous CO2 reacts to form carbonic acid (H2CO3) as shown in equation (2.1). This equation shows various forms of CO2 as it is dissolved in the water (brine). Depending on the pH of the solution, either forms of CO2 may be observed (CO2 (aq), 〖"HCO" 〗_"3" ^"-" , 〖"CO" 〗_"3" ^"2-" ). There are two ways for storing CO2 in ocean, either directly injected into the oceans or injected beneath ocean floor at a depth greater…

What does different concentrations of acids do to shells? The ocean water is mildly alkaline (pH of 8.2) and contains chemicals that are dangerous/crucial for the survival of it’s inhabitants. For an example, there is CO2 in the air from human activity that then reacts to sea water and creates carbonic acid (H2CO3). The H2CO3 then dissociates into a hydrogen proton and a bicarbonate ion (HCO3-). When carbonate ions combine with a hydrogen ion the concentration of dissolved carbonate…

The objective of this paper is to propose an outline for conducting an integrated environmental health impact assessment concerning ocean acidification on Alaska fisheries and coastal communities based on Briggs multifaceted framework and then review approaches for reducing the environmental risk as described in scholarly literature. The risk assessment framework will consist of: Issue-framing…