There are many aspects of global change that remain hidden from our view. They have little effect on our daily lives, and most people ignore them: out of sight, out of mind. If this is true of global change impacts on land, then it is doubly true of the impacts on the world’s oceans. Although 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by ocean waters, most of us know very little about the oceans. It is perhaps even more difficult to generate public interest in oceanic environmental impacts that are completely invisible. One exception to this is the enormous piles of plastic debris that drift across the world’s oceans and wash up on shores around the world. This problem can be photographed, and films can be made about it, showing marine mammals, sea turtles, and sea birds drowning because of it. But changes in ocean temperature and chemistry are invisible to the naked eye. They are happening, slowly but surely, as the planet’s atmosphere warms, and as atmospheric CO2 levels rise. This chapter concerns one of these invisible impacts: the rising acidity of the world’s ocean waters.
Elias S., 2021. Chapter 5 – impacts of ocean acidification on Arctic marine ecosystems. In: Elias S. (Ed.), Threats to the Arctic, pp 67-92. Elsevier. Article (restricted access).
