Background
While concern over global warming from the rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as a direct result of the burning of fossil fuels is now widely recognized, the other side of the carbon dioxide emissions equation – ocean acidification via CO2 enrichment – has received far less attention. Anthropogenic CO2 only resides in the atmosphere temporarily. While some small fraction of the anthropogenic CO2 takes a brief detour through the terrestrial biosphere for about 40 years (on average) before being released back into the atmosphere by decay, about one-third of the CO2 emitted each year is quickly absorbed by the oceans. In the long run some 85% of all of mankind's CO2 emissions will be absorbed by gas exchange across the air-sea interface. This amount is established by the chemical capacity of the ocean and the total amount of fossil fuels burned. The annual rate of uptake is controlled by ocean mixing. There is no ambiguity here. The accumulation of fossil fuel CO2 in the upper ocean, and its penetration to the deep-sea in newly formed bottom waters, is plainly observable by ocean chemists. We have now “disposed” of about 530 billion tons of fossil fuel CO2 in the oceans, and the rate of invasion now exceeds 1 million tons of CO2 per hour. We are thereby acidifying the ocean and fundamentally changing the remarkably delicate geochemical balance. The consequences for life in the sea are only now beginning to be investigated, but comparable events in our geologic history have caused massive changes in ocean ecosystems, including widespread extinctions.
Ocean Acidification Activities | Back to top
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Ocean Acidification: Is There a Problem?Students will utilize a guided WebQuest to research the possible future effects of ocean acidification, explore current models used to predict the changes in the ocean’s pH and discuss the current data collection for research. |
Ocean Acidification in the news | Back to top
Yahoo! News: (07/09/12)
Science official: Ocean acidity major reef threat
Nature News: (06/29/12)
Global network will track acidifying oceans
Thinkprogress: (06/28/12)
Kardashians Get 40 Times More News Coverage Than Ocean Acidification
Arstechnica: (03/01/12)
Ocean acidification on track to be among the worst of the last 300 million years
Ocean Acidification Resources | Back to top
- UAF Ocean Acidification Research Center—http://www.sfos.uaf.edu/oarc
- PMEL Carbon Program: Ocean Acidification—http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification
- Nationa Academy of Sciences: Ocean Acidification—http://oceanacidification.nas.edu/
- Gulf of Alaska Ocean Acidification Mooring—http://pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/GAKOA
- Resurrection Bay Real-time Data Buoy—http://www.ims.uaf.edu/gak1/realtime/index.html
- Rapid Acidification of the Ocean During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (Science 10 June 2005: Vol. 308 no. 5728)
- Impact of Anthropogenic CO2 on the CaCO3 System in the Oceans (Science, 305(5682), 2004)
- Global Carbon Budget and Ocean pH—George Matsumoto, CSTA 2008
- MBARI—The Emerging Science of a High CO2 / Low pH Ocean
- Sea Grant Ocean Acidification Fact Sheet
- Ocean Acidification Resources Overview
- pH Measurements
- CO2 Measurements
- PMEL Carbon Program LDEO Surface Ocean CO2 Climatology
- Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
- Marine Institute Ocean Measurements of Carbon Dioxide
- Ocean Acidification: So What? (voicethread)
- I2I: Inquiry-to-Insight project—An International Environmental Science Collaboration
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