Running head: ACID RAIN 1

Acid Rain’s Effect on Sea Life

William Delph

Biology A102

4/17/2018
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Acid Rain’s Effect on Sea Life

While not harming people directly, many scientists believe that acid rain is one of the top

ten leading killers of people in the United States. Acid rain is a formation of rain that has

decreased its level of potential hydrogen (Ph) from other atmospheric pollutants (1). While the

acid rain may not directly kill people, it does kill many rain forests, sea life, and other animals. In

most cases of sea animals, the animals consume the water around them to breathe, eat, or to

move. When sea life takes in water they also are subjected to the other contents in the water. The

intake of Ph can harm or even kill some animals in water. People have caused Ph levels to

decrease in rain fall for the past hundred years. Human influences have led to a decrease in acid

rain and as a side effect it has harmed sea life in bodies of water such as sea urchins’ ability to

grow outer shells for protection.

For the past 16 years, people have been decreasing the Ph level in rainwater by increasing

the levels of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2). Many businesses rely on cutting

down trees and using fossil fuels for a cheap source of power. By using both fossil fuels and

cutting own tress led to a large increase of CO2 and SO2 in the atmosphere. Trees and other

plants use photosynthesis to produce energy. To complete this process, these plants use CO2 and

water to produce glucose, which is their form of energy, and they release the byproduct Oxygen.

By using the process of photosynthesis, plants have been removing some of the CO2 in the

atmosphere. When people cut down trees or remove other plant life, they also increase the

amount of CO2 in the atmosphere because plants remove CO2. Also, the burning of coal releases

CO2 and SO2 into the air (2). Coal contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur.

When people burn the coal, it produces steam and heat that push turbines and trapped heat which

forms energy. One of the main parts of the coal that is released when it is burned, is SO2 which
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pollutes the air and causes Ph levels to fall. SO2 decreases Ph levels because it mixes and reacts

with the water and oxygen in the atmosphere which causes heat to increase and leads to the

formation of acid rain (3).

People have also decreased the Ph level in rainwater by creating livestock or animal

husbandry. Animals, such as the cow or goat, produce large amounts of methane when they

digest their food. The group of these such animals is called ruminant and explains that these

animals digest food and produce methane. These animals create a rather large amount of

methane gas, for example a cow will produce over 70 to 120 kg of methane gas per year. While

many of these animals were not in abundance in the world, they are now kept in captivity and

grown in abundance by the human population (2). On average each farm caries about 19 cows

for each of there farms and there are over fifty-one thousand dairy farms in just the U.S. (4).

With the large amount of herding the amounts of methane in the atmosphere have grown rapidly.

When methane rises into the air, the gas reacts with a hydroxyl radical and creates water vapor

and CO2 (2). With so much methane being created by farm animals, more CO2 is released into

the air each day which cause the heat to rise in the atmosphere and decreases Ph levels in rain

water.

The formation of acid rain starts with many chemicals, such as CO2, that form new bonds

and create acids that mix into the water that has been stored in the clouds. CO2 has been in the

atmosphere for many years before people started producing it. With previous CO2 in the air, the

Ph level of rain water was already 5.6. Diluted water has a Ph value of 7 but acid rain has a Ph

level of 5.5 or lower. When CO2 gathers in the air it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid

(H2CO3). When the carbonic acid is formed it has a very weak bond and tends to break apart into

hydrogen ions (H+ + HCO3-). These hydrogen bonds make rain water more acidic. Another
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chemical that causes this is SO2. SO2 reacts with the water and oxygen in the air it creates

sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Sulfuric acid is a very strong acid and breaks apart into complete hydrogen

ions (2H+ + SO42-). These hydrogen ions have been known to decrease the Ph level to below 5

which can even cause damage to structures (5).

The acidity in rain water causes more damage to sea life than it does on land because it

reaches water quicker and water covers more of the earth. The Earth’s surface is covered over

80% in water. This large surface allows rain from clouds to easily disperse the acidic water into

the oceans, lakes, streams, and other bodies of water relatively easy. Also, rivers and streams

flow acidic rain water to larger bodies of water every day. While water with a Ph of 5.6 is one of

the most used dissolvent in the world, water with a Ph lower than 5.6 can dissolve minerals much

faster than regular rain water, such as limestone. Many rainfalls have led to the creation of lakes

and streams throughout the world. Valleys and uplifts cause large rainfalls to gather in smaller

areas and direct them down steep hills and cliffs. The trapped waters between valleys and falling

from uplifts create rivers or streams that continue weathering the earth below them. Many of

these formations lead back to the ocean surrounding the continent after a long journey. As land

masses form, the center of the formation tends to grow faster and creates an uplift that allows the

water to be pulled by gravity down the uplift. When these waters reach oceans or reefs, they

carry many of the minerals that they had dissolved through their journey. Streams and rivers with

lower Ph levels dissolve and carry more harmful minerals to the ocean or coral reefs than streams

or rivers with a Ph level of 5.6 (6).

Waves also carry a large amount of acidic water to the coral reefs. With the large

amount of acidic rain being dropping in the ocean, much of the acid rain is trapped inside the

ocean. Storms, the Milankovitch cycles, and the moon all create waves that carry those acidic
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water to shores. Storms create strong winds that push up against small waves and causes them to

increase in size from the pressure of both the moon and the wind. The Milankovitch cycles are

three different movements that the Sun’s gravity forces onto the Earth. The three movements are

eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession. While eccentricity typically affects the seasons that the

Earth goes through, both the axial tilt and the precession affect waves on the earth. Axial tilt is

the movement of the earth when it spins on its own axis, this large movement causes the mass

and plates on the earth to move which then transfers kinetic energy into water which can create

waves. Precession is the movement that makes appear as though it “wobbles” like a top. This

motion is from both the pull from the sun and the moon and causes tides to become high or low

in different parts of the world (7). The waves created from the moon’s gravity is also directly

affected by the precession movement of the Earth and the waves are also pulled from the moon’s

gravity more when one part of Earth’s surface is facing the moon. All these waves carry the

acidic water to new areas and can carry them hundreds of miles. The combination of both

trapped acidic rainfall from the land and the ocean, can create a large amount of acidic buildup in

coral reefs.

Many coral reef animals are affected by the increase in acidity in the water, for

example the shells of many plankton, sea urchins, coral, and shellfish are dissolved from the

lower Ph levels. When the Ph levels are decreased the acidity removes carbonate ions away by

forming a bond between the hydrogen ions formed after the acid broke down in the sky. Many

shelled creatures use these carbonate ions to form their shells. Plankton, sea urchins, coral, and

shellfish are just a few of these examples that are affected by the increased Ph levels. Many sea

creatures’ shells are made up of a chemical called calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Without the

carbonate ions in the water the sea animals lack the necessary material to maintain or even build
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their shells that protect them from a large variety of dangers such as the force of wave

movements to an attack from a large fish (8). The increased levels of acidity in the waters has

grown too fast for animals to adapt and evolve. Many scientists believe that the effects of the

decreased Ph levels in waters will kill most of today’s sea life. Most of these animals that use

shells tend to be the food source for all the larger animals in bodies of water. If the smaller

animals were to die, then other animals could no longer find food. This could create a long chain

of animal deaths in the ocean because many of the species are heterotrophic instead of

autotrophic. If smaller creatures no longer had shells they could no longer protect their species

long enough to adapt and may cause the extinction for their species. Once the smaller species at

the bottom of the food chain died, many of the animals above them would lose their food source

and would die of starvation as well creating a paradox that could severely harm animals living in

water (8). The decreasing amounts of Ph in rain are harming

many different animals in water. While there has always been a level of acidity in rain, the

growing amounts of CO2 admissions are causing every day rain to become dangerous. Animal

life in water is affected much more than animals that live on land because the earth is 80%

covered in water. Acid rain can be transported by streams, waves, clouds, and many more water

formations. Acid rain lowers the Ph levels in water and leaves hydrogen ions that take carbonate

ions that many water borne animals use to build their shells. Because the shells of these creatures

are destroyed, their species may go extinct and cause many more animals to become extinct in

response. Acid rain affects the entire community of water animals in either a direct or indirect

way. This also affects many animals on land such as people. Without clean waters many fish and

other creatures will die. To decrease Ph levels in the atmosphere, many people believe that all

people could use alternative sources of energy. Alternative sources of energy may lower CO2
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admissions into the atmosphere. Acid rain has become a large problem for most animals in the

world by directly affecting the animals in water which affects other animals indirectly as well

making acid rain a problem for almost all beings.

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References
1. Webster, Merriam (2018). Acid Rain definition. Retrieved April 20, 2018, from

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acid%20rain

2. Venter, Oscar; Sanderson, Eric W; Magrach, Ainhoa; Allan, James R; Beher, Jutta; et al.

(2016). Sixteen years of change in the global terrestrial human footprint and implications

for biodiversity conservation. Nature Communications Vol. 7

3. Bogan, Robert A. J.; Ohde, Shigeru; Arakaki, Takeshi; Mori, Ikuko; Mcleod, Cameron

W. (2009). Changes in Rainwater pH associated with Increasing Atmospheric Carbon

Dioxide after the Industrial Revolution. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution. Volume 196, pg.

263-271.

4. Economic Research service (2006). Changes in the Size and Location of U.S. Dairy

Farms. Retrieved April 20, 2018, from

https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/45868/17034_err47b_1_.pdf?v=41746

5. Singh, Shweta; Elumalai, Suresh Pandian; Pal, Asim Kumar, (2016). Rain Ph estimation

based on the particulate matter pollutants and wet deposition study. Science of the Total

Environment Volumes 563-564, Pg. 293-301.

6. Castro-Rodriguez, Ana Alenjandrina; Isidro-Angeles, Maria Guadalupe; Neri-Oliva,

Angeles; Flores-Castrellon, Osvaldo; Arellano-Gil, Javier; Santos-Jallath, Jose Enrique,

(2017). Soil Infiltration, Permeability, and Rock Fracturing Assessment to Establish

Water Flow Patterns in a Mine with Acid Mine Drainage. Mine Water and the

Environment. Vol. 36, pg. 564-571.

7. Villanueva, John Carl (2015). Milankovitch Cycle. Retrieved April 20, 2018, from

https://www.universetoday.com/39012/milankovitch-cycle/
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8. Arthington, Angela H. (2016). Fish conservation in freshwater and marine realms: status,

threats, and management. Aquatic conservation. Vol. 26, pg. 838-857.