Ocean acidification

Over the past few days, scientists have released a series of studies suggesting that the world’s oceans are acidifying much faster than anyone thought possible. As an increasing amount of carbon-dioxide gets emitted into the atmosphere, the oceans have, in turn, been absorbing more of it, which causes the pH of the water to fall. Lower pH makes it hard for marine organisms to build shells out of calcium carbonate, a potentially deadly problem for shellfish, coral, and some kinds of plankton. (Last week, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the EPA over this very issue, using the Clean Water Act as a pretext.)

So how fast are we talking about? The ocean off the coast of Washington State is acidifying ten to 20 times faster than existing climate models had projected, according to a new paper published by researchers at the University of Chicago. The researchers found that the decreasing pH of ocean water at their monitoring site corresponded with a decline in mussel populations, presumably because the mussels had difficulty building shells.
Continue reading ‘There Will Be Acid’

The accelerated increase in atmospheric CO2 resulted from fossil fuel burning, deforestation, and other human activities, trigger serious consequences on marine ecosystems, scientists from the University of Chicago warned in a recent report published in PNAS.

As the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere increases, the ocean pH changes, which impacts the marine organisms living here. The pH is important for mediating physiological reactions, the researchers explained, and is critical for a lot of processes in the ocean.

A declining pH could interfere with reef building, carbon sequestration via phytoplankton sedimentation, and consumer-resource interactions. Furthermore, the organisms that are most likely to suffer from these changes are the calcifying organisms such as corals, mollusks, coralline algae, and phytoplankton.
Continue reading ‘Study Warns Ocean Acidification Increases At Alarming Levels’

In a new research, scientists at the University of Chicago, US, have documented that oceans are growing acidic faster than
previously thought.

In addition, they have found that the increasing acidity correlates with increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2).

“Of the variables the study examined that are linked to changes in ocean acidity, only atmospheric carbon dioxide exhibited a corresponding steady change,” said J. Timothy Wootton, the lead author of the study and Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago.
Continue reading ‘Oceans ‘turning acidic quickly’’

Federal Protection of Coral Habitat in Florida and the Caribbean Falls Short

The Center for Biological Diversity on Wednesday will give the Bush administration official notice of its intent file a lawsuit for illegally excluding global warming and ocean acidification threats from a new rule protecting habitat for elkhorn and staghorn corals. The federal government announced today that it will designate almost 3,000 square miles of reef area off the coasts of Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act for the threatened corals. The new rule, to be published in Wednesday’s Federal Register, was required by a court-approved settlement of a 2007 lawsuit brought by the Center.

Although the polar bear has gained more notoriety, elkhorn coral and staghorn coral — which were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2006 — have the dubious honor of being the first species protected under the Endangered Species Act due to threats to their survival primarily caused by global warming. The law requires that when a species is listed under the Act, the federal government must protect habitat that is essential to its survival and recovery. In the new critical-habitat rule, the federal government designated important areas to be protected for the corals, but created a giant loophole that disregards the primary threats to coral habitat: elevated seawater temperatures and ocean acidification.
Continue reading ‘Group Plans Suit Against Bush Administration for Ignoring Global Warming Threat to Coral Habitat’

If I had a penny for every time I’ve read a paper that says climate change is worse than we thought, I’d have … well … over a pound by now. A colleague on Nature Reports Climate Change says she’d have “at least five pounds … maybe a hundred”.

Today’s example: the oceans are turning acidic faster than we thought.

“The increase in acidity we saw during our study was about the same magnitude as we expect over the course of the next century,” says Timothy Wootton, of the University of Chicago (National Geographic).
Continue reading ‘File under: ‘it’s worse than we thought’’

Increasing levels of acidity in the world’s oceans –- caused by excess carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels –- are threatening several species of sea creatures, according to a study in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers, led by Timothy Wootton of the University of Chicago, compiled eight years of acidity, salinity, temperature, and other measurements from probes at Tatoosh Island, Wash., which is located just off the Olympic Peninsula.

Oceans absorb about a third of the CO2 released into the atmosphere, and when the CO2 dissolves in water, it forms carbonic acid, which alters the ocean’s chemical balance. Acidic ocean water can cause seashells to dissolve; researchers in this study discovered that the increasingly acidic water of Tatoosh Island caused mussels (above) and barnacle populations to decline. Scientists are also concerned that any sea creatures with shells, including oysters, crabs, and lobsters, could also be at risk as the oceans become more acidic.

The researchers found that the acidity increased more than 10 times faster than predicted by climate simulations. “Our worry is that this might be happening faster than people thought,” says Wootton. “We hope this study will prod people to do more research into this.”
Continue reading ‘Ocean acidity threatens sea life’

An apparent rapid upswing in ocean acidity in recent years is wiping out coastal species like mussels, a new study has found.

“We’re seeing dramatic changes,” said Timothy Wootton of the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, lead author of the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study shows increases in ocean acidity that are more than 10 times faster than any prediction.

“It appears that we’ve crossed a threshold where the ocean can no longer buffer the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere,” Wootton told IPS.
Continue reading ‘CLIMATE CHANGE: Oceans Passing Critical CO2 Threshold’