April 22, 2010
New Study: Ocean Acidification Occurring Rapidly
Some sobering news for the oceans this Earth Day. A new congressionally requested study by the National Research Council concludes that “the chemistry of the ocean is changing at an unprecedented rate and magnitude due to anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions” and that “the rate of change exceeds any known to have occurred for at least the past hundreds of thousands of years.”
The study finds that the oceans have absorbed about one-third of total carbon dioxide emissions over the past 200 years – which has made the oceans more acidic – and the acidity will continue to rise because CO2 emissions are rising too rapidly for the oceans to cope.
Ocean acidification, says the report, can disrupt important physiological processes in marine creatures, such as shell and skeleton building, internal fluid and tissue pH maintenance and carbon fixation in photosynthesis.
And while we don’t yet know the ultimate consequences for ecosystems, we do know that coral reefs, fisheries, protected species and other valuable natural resources are at risk.
The bottom line here is that ocean acidification will continue unless anthropogenic CO2 emissions are substantially curbed — Take action today by telling your representative to support further research on ocean acidification.
Ellycia Harrould-Kolieb is a climate scientist at Oceana.