One of the more serious impacts of human-caused climate disruption occurs when seawater absorbs excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When this occurs, the carbon dioxide reacts with the water to form carbonic acid, which then ultimately reduces its pH level. For much of the marine life in the oceans, the consequences of this will be dire.
“Animals that have a calcium carbonate shell such as, corals, coralline algae, pteropods, bivalves and gastropods are negatively affected by ocean acidification,” said Richard Feely, a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. “In some cases, their shells are weakened or actually dissolve while the animal is still alive. Fish behavior is also impacted by ocean acidification such that some species lose their ability to navigate or avoid predators.”
Acidifying oceans have already killed valuable oysters within the Pacific Northwest where Feely lives. “Oyster larvae are dying in the shellfish hatcheries along the West Coast,” he said.
Feely, who also holds an affiliate full professor faculty position at the University of Washington School of Oceanography, has been studying ocean acidification for nearly half a century. He moved to Seattle in 1974 and started a chemical oceanography program at NOAA. Feely ultimately went on to become one of the first scientists to measure how seawater was storing excess carbon dioxide and has, from the beginning, been one of the leading scientists studying ocean acidification.
The pH scale measures acidity, and 7.0 is neutral, whereas higher readings are more “basic” and lower readings are more “acidic.” Historically, Earth’s oceans averaged a pH of 8.2, but this is predicted to fall by as much as 0.4 by 2100. Since the pH scale is logarithmic, one pH unit represents a tenfold change. The ocean’s pH level has already dropped from 8.2 to 8.1, which represents a 25 percent drop within just the…