How Big is Ocean Acidification?

Ocean acidification is a huge environmental problem that needs to be addressed. Making Waves podcast: Ocean Acidification (posted in June 2013) is a video by NOAA's National Ocean Service. It explains what acidification is, and how it is an issue much bigger than people originally thought. Acidification is linked to climate change, and much of the world's population right now is not taking either problem seriously. Visit this NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) page: Ocean Acidification: What You Can Do  and read about ways you can help reduce your carbon emissions, which also saves the ocean from absorbing more CO2.

How Can You Help Fight Ocean Acidification?

Acidification of the ocean is being propelled because of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which the ocean absorbs; creating carbonic acid, lowering the pH of the water, and damaging marine life. One way to combat this is to reduce your own carbon footprint. 

What is a carbon footprint? Everybody has one. Your carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide, methane, and other carbon compounds that you produce everyday. 

There are ways to reduce your footprint, walking or riding a bike for example. To get somewhere within a short distance, it isn't necessary to drive a vehicle when you could simply go for a nice walk, or use that bike that's been collecting dust for a while. Not only does walking or biking reduce your carbon emissions, it saves you money on gasoline!

Another way to reduce your carbon footprint, and help the ocean, is to:

 

You can reduce the amount of trash that ends up polluting the ocean and contributing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Reusing materials, and recycling when you're done reduces carbon emissions. A lot of what people throw away can actually be recycled. If you're unsure of what can be recycled or how to recycle certain materials, visit this website: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Acidification on the East Coast

Ocean acidification is a problem that is feared will soon affect the Atlantic coast. Here is a brief video from the Ocean Conservancy about how acidification could effect shellfish industries on the East coast: Ocean Conservancy: East Coast Ocean Acidification

Why is Coral Important?

Coral reefs, along with rainforests, support the most biodiversity on the planet. Coral reefs are home to thousands of species of fish and invertebrates that cannot be found anywhere else on Earth. Corals are animals belonging to the same family as jellyfish and sea anemones. These delicate ecosystems contribute to coastal economies: tourism, fisheries, scuba diving trips, and other local businesses which provide a large number of jobs; in turn contributing billions of dollars worldwide. Since the coastlines are more susceptible to severe storms, such as hurricanes, it is common to see a lot of damage to property and sometimes loss of human life. This is where coral reefs come to the rescue, they act as a giant buffer to large waves that would destroy much of the shoreline it collides with. So not only do coral reefs provide an enormous diversity of fish and other marine species beneficial to humans, reefs also provide protection to those who live within about 62 miles of them.

Photo retrieved from: Endangered Coral Reefs (Read more about coral here!)

The increasing acidity of the world's oceans has already destroyed much of the coral that existed, and is severely damaging what coral reefs remain. Because of this damage, people are taking action. Artificial reefs are being made from large ships, which are purposely sunk, to give marine life a chance to build homes again.
To find out how you can help save coral reefs, visit NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program page and click on any of the links to get involved.

Ocean Acidification: How it Threatens Food Supplies

Ocean Acidification affects communities primarily on the Pacific coast, but is impeding on the Atlantic coast as well. Families and businesses that rely on harvesting shellfish are experiencing a significant income loss since acidification has become more and more of an issue. Shellfish including clams, oysters, crabs, and mussels, are having more trouble dealing with the harm caused by the increasing acidity of the ocean waters. Their shells are being dissolved from the high acidity; and  to add to that, shellfish cannot properly grow shells as strong as they used to. Many ocean dwelling organisms are finding difficulty in coping/adapting to a more acidic habitat. Acidification spells bad news for more than 1 billion people on the planet who rely on the ocean as a primary food source.

Humans are not the only ones feeling the loss of shellfish availability, many marine creatures also look to shellfish as a source of food, and when the number of shellfish decreases, the number of animals relying on them for food will be soon to follow.
Watch this video (courtesy of NOAA) for more insight: Ocean Acidification's impact on oysters and other shellfish

How is Acidification Harmful?

The pH scale goes from 0 to 14; lower numbers on the scale mean a solution is more acidic, higher numbers indicate the solution is more basic, a pH of 7 means the solution is neutral. The ocean has had a pH of around 8.2 in the past, and presently it is about 8.1, indicating about a 30% increase in acidity.

When CO2 is absorbed by the ocean, carbonic acid forms. This causes acidity levels to rise due to the drop in pH. Creatures that need to produce calcium carbonate shells or skeletons, such as clams, oysters, urchins and corals, are negatively affected by high CO2 absorption; carbonic acid inhibits their ability to grow shells and make the basic skeletons needed to live.
Want to read more detail about the chemistry of ocean acidification? Look here: What is Ocean Acidification? The Chemistry 

What is Ocean Acidification?

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) defines ocean acidification as "the term given to the chemical changes in the ocean as a result of carbon dioxide emissions". 

Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been expelling large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the Earth's atmosphere. About 25 to 50 percent of this CO2 is absorbed by the ocean, which is changing the chemistry of its waters. CO2 also comes from runoff sources in coastal regions, which adds to the total amount of carbon dioxide entering the ocean. This results in a drop in pH levels, making the waters more acidic and harmful to marine life. 

A simple diagram showing the harm Carbonic Acid causes.