What is ocean acidification?
The oceans absorb an estimated 22
million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every day. This shields the
greenhouse effect by taking the planet-warming gas out of the atmosphere and
storing it in the ocean. This causes huge problems for ocean life. This carbon
mixes with the salt water to create carbonic acid, which immediately breaks
down, forming bicarbonate and hydrogen and this excess hydrogen increases the
water’s acidity.
Higher acidity, in turn, makes
life difficult for marine animals by creating problems in their ability to form
shells and skeletons. For plankton and many other species at the bottom of
marine food chains, this means slower growth and population decline. These
problems trickle up to affect the large fish that depend on smaller organisms
for food.
Acidification also causes some
coral species to grow more slowly or disappear. Since coral reefs support 25
percent of the ocean’s species of fish, this spells widespread trouble. Marine
ecosystems are so interconnected, in fact, that scientists cannot predict the
full effects of acidification. They only know that changes in the availability
of food and in community structure can scale up quickly.
http://scienceprogress.org/2011/09/ocean-acidification-beyond-the-carbon-debate/
