Ocean acidification is the result of the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide by the oceans, effectively mitigating climate change but generating large chemical changes in seawater. Ocean acidification is a new field of research which has implications for a very large number of scientific and socio-economic sub-disciplines. This chapter introduces ocean acidification in a broad context. It provides the basic chemical background as well as a brief introduction on the biological processes that could be affected and on the ecological and biogeochemical consequences. The history of ocean acidification research and a bibliometric analysis identify key early papers and shows steep increase in the publication rate starting from the mid-2000. The full list of references included in the bibliographic database is provided as supplementary information. Finally, the potential societal implications and the challenge to address ocean acidification in policy are briefly outlined.
Gattuso J.-P., & Hansson L., 2011. Ocean acidification: background and history. In: Gattuso J.-P. & Hansson L. (Eds.), Ocean acidification, pp. 1-20. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Book.
