Abigail Alling

Mr. Fitz

Marine Biology

9 March 2018

Ocean Acidification Annotation

Before Scientists knew whether Global warming/climate change was a real

threat, they took a series of tests to get an idea of what the climate would consist of over

the next fifty years. The goal was to discover how severe it could be before they were

aware that all minor amounts of CO2 contributed to the amount in the Atmosphere.

Then scientists started to realize after setting up experiments in different spots that

regardless of the location the concentration of CO2 was higher each year. Another

(long-term) study has shown that the carbon dioxide concentration in air bubbles in the

ocean increased rapidly at the “onset of industrialization” in the 1800’s. Also, “The

ocean has absorbed fully half of all the fossil carbon released to the atmosphere since

the beginning of the Industrial Revolution”. Other mind-blowing facts include: Around

1/3 of the CO2 released by burning of fossil fuels ends up in the ocean. The shift

toward acidity, and declines the ph balance which changes some ocean chemistry,

leading to it being more difficult for marine life to build “hard parts out of calcium

carbonate”. This abrupt decline in pH threatens hundreds if not thousands of organisms

including coral, which is one of the most significant habitats on earth. There are many

coral reefs that are already at a quick decreasing pace and ocean acidification may

push those over the threshold and into extinction.