Acid Oceans

We have all heard of global climate change, and when we think of this we generally think of the sea levels rising or the ice caps melting, but there are so many other things happening with global climate change that go unnoticed.

The ocean is not only affected by the ice caps melting and making the water levels become higher and higher, the ocean is also affected by carbon emissions. Since the Industrial Revolution, the release of carbon dioxide has and continues to increase in the atmosphere. What people do not realize is the ozone is not the only factor being affected by this. The ocean is responsible for absorbing one fourth of the carbon dioxide released into the air. This leads to the problem of ocean acidification.

Ocean acidification is becoming more and more of a problem because we continue to release more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and when we are releasing carbon emissions into the atmosphere, we are also releasing them into the ocean. The absorption of carbon dioxide into the ocean is changing the chemistry of the ocean which in turn is causing many problems for marine life.

The graph shown above is showing the increase in the ph balance at two different locations. Although carbon dioxide is required for the ocean life to live, too much carbon dioxide can be detrimental. This process will begin to affect species such as oysters, clams, sea urchins, shallow and deep water corals, and plankton. When these shelled ocean life are at risk, humans are also at risk because such a large portion of the world rely on these animals for their food supply. 

Researchers have looked into what will happen to these different shell fish over time, and with the highly projected ph levels in the ocean shell fish's shells are going to begin to deteriorate.

Carbon emissions are continues to cause more and more problems throughout nature, and it is not a realistic goal to completely stop these emissions from happening, it is possible for us to cut down on the carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere. Not only are we affecting the atmosphere we live and breath with, we are also hurting other types of animal life including the ocean as a whole. The ocean is the home to the most amount of species on the planet and we need to make ourselves aware of what we are doing to their home. 

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification

http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/critical-issues-ocean-acidification/