Essay On Ocean Acidification

Acidification in the oceans kill the plant/animal life that is trying to strive at thy shore

Ocean Acidification is affecting our life more than we ever thought it would be able to. When people first think about oceans, they don’t see the diversity of life that is in there or how much we depend on those organisms and the ocean itself. We only see this ginormous body of water, where some feel like it’s not a big deal if anything happens to it. Ocean acidification (as defined by NOAA) is “ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth’s oceans, cause by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this then creates an acid”. Each year the ocean absorbs at least 25-30% of all CO2 from human activity. This can be a huge threat to the diversity of the ocean and the benefits it provides to society. The rate continues to go up, more so than anyone would have thought it would and as these continue to raise the risks we are facing could be bigger than we thought and we could soon be facing a mass extinction.

Humans are changing the climate right now through deforestation and burning fossil fuels which is also creating ocean acidification. Kolbert writes in The Sixth Extinction that, humans are burning an excessive amount of fossil fuels through coal and natural gas into the air which added tons of carbon into the atmosphere. “SINCE the start of the industrial revolution, humans have burned through enough fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—to add some 365 billion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere” (Kolbert, p. 113). It is possible to say that through these burning fossil fuels, ocean acidification are occurring, too, because too much carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere and the ocean is absorbing the air into the ocean. Kolbert writes, “Thanks to all this extra CO2, the pH of the ocean’s surface waters has already dropped. Assuming that humans continue to burn fossil fuels, the oceans will continue to absorb carbon dioxide and will become increasingly acidified” (Kolbert, p. 113-114). In addition, our emissions of CO2 modify our atmosphere. Whereas, the gases from the atmosphere get absorbed by the ocean and gases dissolved in the ocean are released into the atmosphere killing most of our species. For example, many mollusks, corals, and single-celled creatures called foraminifera use ingredients in seawater to build their shells and other hard parts and these

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.

“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”, by Marah J. Hardt and Carl Safina addresses the dangers of increasing acidity in the ocean caused by carbon dioxide. Hardt, a research scientist and writer, is the founder of Ocean Ink. Safina, an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University, is the founding president of the Blue Ocean Institute.

An economic shortage would also occur because both the fishing industry and the shellfish industry will simply have less products to sell. The consequences of ocean acidification don’t just affect the ocean, it directly affects humans too.

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.

The Earth is a very miniscule piece in a much grander puzzle called the universe. Within that tiny rock in space are complicated systems that help to sustain life. The atmosphere surrounding us is a mixture of many different components. It is composed of roughly 78% nitrogen, about 21% oxygen, and about 1% other, which includes carbon, the most fundamental element on Earth (Hopkins 2010). Carbon is present in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (Hopkins 2010). Carbon dioxide may have a small presence in the earth 's atmosphere but it plays an important role in the processes within the ocean, having a huge influence over the chemistry of seawater carbonate and its equilibrium process (Hopkins 2010). One way it impacts the ocean is via a process called ocean acidification. Carbon dioxide is a compound that can be found in nature, but the elevated carbon dioxide levels caused by humans can have a lot of unintended consequences, particularly to the seawater carbonate chemistry (Hopkins 2010).

OCEAN ACIDIFICATION: THE FACTS "OCEANA calls on world leaders to act immediately on the reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, in order to protect life and oceans marina, which depend hundreds of millions of people. " What is ocean acidification?  Ocean acidification is a process caused by increased emissions human carbon dioxide. 

About half of that man-made CO2 has been absorbed by the oceans, increasing the concentration of carbonic acid, which has caused the oceans to become more acidic. Over the past 300 million years, ocean pH has averaged about 8.2. Today, it is around 8.1, a 25% increase in acidity over the past two centuries. That increase is projected to reach 150% by the end of this century, a rate of change not seen in 65 million years. A more acidic ocean inhibits shell growth in marine animals such as corals, crustaceans and mollusks, and disrupts entire food chains all the

obal Warming is caused by the built up of carbon dioxide and other air pollutions. These absorb sunlight and solar radiation, trapping the heat which causes global temperatures to rise. Ocean Acidification is caused when the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the air causing it to be acidic. Scientist believe that the ocean has absorbed about half of the excess carbon dioxide in the past 200 years. This has caused a drop of 0.1 in ph. Since the pH scale is logarithmic, this change represents a thirty percent increase in acidity.

Ocean acidification is the decrease in the acidity levels of the Earth 's oceans, caused by the intake of carbon dioxide emitted in to the environment and atmosphere. Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuel-powered machines have increased human technology and advancement. However, this has caused the emissions, large amounts of carbon dioxide, deforestation, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Ocean acidification, in turn, has created a benefit to us by slowing down climate change by absorbing the emissions in the water that have remained in the air. However, studies are now starting to show that the massive amounts of carbon dioxide in the water bodies are altering the water chemistry and affecting the biodiversity and life cycles of many marine organisms, especially those at the lower end of the food chain. Other organisms living off the food chain would be part of a symbiotic relationship involving nutrient cycling: where all other organisms are feeding off of the larger one, yet are providing some benefit to the overall host.

Ocean acidification is the process in which the ocean soaks up carbon dioxide and its pH lowers. At the current point in time, the pH in the ocean has dropped 0.1 pH. ALthough this doesn’t seem like much, since pH is logarithmic, this means that the ocean is 30% more acidic than before. This jump in acidity will literally melt the shells of oysters, and sometimes even fish. What causes ocean acidification is carbon dioxide. Normally, carbon dioxide wouldn’t be that much of a problem as the ocean has a natural buffering system. The carbon dioxide would combine with the water molecules and create a bicarbonate ion then it would gain another H+ molecule and would create a carbonic acid. This acid replaces the much needed carbonate molecules which

The effects of climate change on land are easily visible, with events like droughts and melting polar ice, for example, drawing considerable public attention. But out in the oceans, which cover over 70% of the globe, it seems that climate change effects are, for the most part, out of sight and out of mind. Our oceans contain between 50% and 80% of all the life forms on earth, and losing them would completely change the face of our planet, even if it wasn’t easily visible, at first.

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.