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Nick Lam
Professor Flower
UNST: Life Unlimited
1 December 2014
Ocean Acidification:
The Lesser Known Threat To The World Besides Climate Change
Ocean acidification is less known and been left out in some of the global climate
change discussion for quite awhile, but it should be more talked about because ocean
acidification is as dangerous as climate change. Ocean acidification can be referred as
climate change evil twin, because we as humans dont see or feel its effects; only
marine life can feel the effects of excess CO2. The ocean is considered as one of the
largest natural reservoirs of carbon. Everyday humans have been burning fossil fuels
which has increased the amount of carbon dioxide gas emitted into the atmosphere and
25% of carbon dioxide gas in dissolved into the ocean. That is about eight pounds
person each day or 20 trillion pounds a year of Carbon dioxide. The excess CO 2 that
humans are making is changing the chemistry of the ocean and endangering the many
life forms of the ocean. Scientist call this process ocean acidification.
At first glance people might think that the ocean taking in carbon dioxide is good
because there will be less carbon in the atmosphere which means slowing the process
of global warming. Whats actually happening is that carbon dioxide is making the ocean
more acidic. The ocean has become 30% more acidic over the past 200 years.
Scientists thought they didnt have to worry about the ocean becoming more acidic
because the rivers carried enough dissolved chemicals from rocks to the ocean to keep

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the oceans pH stable (The Ocean Portal Team). As a result, the rivers couldnt stop the
pH from lowering because carbon dioxide is dissolving into the ocean at a very rapid
pace.
To fully understand what ocean acidification really is, we need to know the cause
of the it first. The 25% of carbon dioxide that is made around the world is dissolved in
the ocean. That added CO2 in the ocean causes an increase of acidity. The way that
acidity is measure is by the pH scale. A couple of things to notice about the pH scale is
that it ranges from 0 to 14. Zero describes something that is highly acidic and 14
describes something that is highly alkaline or basic. Seven is the neutral part of the pH
scale. For example, distilled water has a pH of seven. If the acidity is increased, the pH
is dropping and if the alkalinity is increased, the pH is going up. An important concept
about the pH scale is that it is logarithmic which mean each step is a factor of ten. For
example, if the goes from a pH of 5 to pH of 4, the substance is 10 times more acidic
than what it was before. A pH of 5 to pH of 3 is 100 time more acidic because 10 times
10 is 100.
In the industrial era from 1751 to the early 1990s, the surface ocean pH decrease
from 8.25 to 8.14. That may not seem a lot, but the ocean covers of the world and
logarithmic makes it into a bigger number. As a result, the ocean became 30% more
acidic.
When CO2 is dissolved in the ocean, it makes a chemical reaction with H 2O and
creates carbonic acid or H2CO3-. The carbonic acid can continue to break down by
removing their hydrogen atoms and create bicarbonate (HCO 3-1) or carbonate ion (CO32

). The problem starts when hydrogen is given off because the hydrogen will be left

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alone floating around the ocean making it more acidic. Adding more CO 2 results in
creating more hydrogen ions floating in the ocean.
What matters the most and why pH is affecting marine life is that the rate of
change is faster than we ever seen in history for a very long time. The rate of
acidification is similar to a greenhouse event during the Paleocene/Eocene boundary,
which was 55,000,000 years ago. The Paleocene/Eocene boundary was a time where
huge extinction was happening because of the rate of change of the acidity levels and
huge amounts of CO2. History told us that biodiversity can be threatened by increased
ocean acidity.
Many marine animals are sensitive to small changes in pH. Human can relate to
marine animals because the pH of human blood ranges from 7.35 to 7.45. Any kind of
pH drop of .2 to .3 can cause major effects onto the body. It may cause seizures,
comas, and/or death. Marine animals are no different because it can drop their
metabolic rate or immune response to other organism such as parasites or bacteria.
The increasing rate of hydrogen ions can cause destruction of coral by chemical
reactions that reduces the results of available carbonate ions. Calcium carbonate is the
building block of making shells in marine animals such as crabs, corals, and mussels.
Calcium carbonate is made when calcium and mixed with carbonate ions. Unfortunately,
due to the excess amount of hydrogen ions, the carbonate ions is reconnecting with the
hydrogen ions. Hydrogen ions has a better time connecting with carbonate than calcium
ions because hydrogen has a greater attraction to carbonate. Marine organisms that
build shells around their body will have a hard time because they cant use bicarbonate
and there will be less calcium carbonate in the ocean. Hydrogen ions can also break

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down calcium carbonate if there arent enough carbonate ions. Even if the organisms
were able to build their shells, they will use to much energy which will prevent them from
doing other activities like reproducing.
Coral reefs are one of the few marine animals that uses calcium carbonate to
make their shells. When the pH decreases, the growth of the coral will be limited. For
example, the shell of the coral will dissolve while the reproduction will slow down. This
will not only affect the coral reefs, but the animals around them. Some animals use
them to hide themselves from predators or use them as shelters. People who rely on
marine animals as their diet benefits from coral reefs because they attract animals. If
there is a healthy coral reef than that mean there are bound to be marine life there. The
destruction of the coral reefs will undoubtedly affect the people and they will be
struggling on finding food. The question is, can these coral reefs adapt to their new
environment? There are some coral reefs species that can use bicarbonate instead of
carbonate ions to build their skeletons (The Ocean Portal Team).
Oysters are having a very hard time at adapting to the pH levels because they
fail to even grow a shell. When they are born, oysters have to immediately build a shell
so they can start eating and grow. However, the lower levels of pH are eating their
shells aways. If they dont have shells then they start to die off. For example, there was
a massive drop in oysters in Willapa Bay. In 2005, all the young oysters couldnt make
their shelled which led them to die. Some business rely on oysters to make their money.
In 2008, Oregons Whiskey Creek Hatchery were short on oysters and their oysters was
nurtured by the Pacific Ocean. Due to the unplanned shortages of oysters, Oregons

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Whiskey Creek Hatchery has to closed their shop for weeks. Each living being is used
for something and if they are not present then it will affect the organism around them.
Zooplankton and phytoplankton are deeply affected by ocean acidification.
Foraminifera and pteropods build their shells by calcium carbonate. They play a big role
in the food web because they are at the bottom where it all begins. Larger animal eat
them in order to survive and the larger animal will get eaten by even a bigger animal
and so on. If the zooplankton werent available, the system of the food web will be in
chaos and animals will die off. For example, the diet of a baby pink salmon is made up
of 50% of pteropods and they will get eaten by other fish, such as herring. Zooplankton
contribute to the carbon cycle because when they sink to the bottom of the ocean, they
are deposited as sediment. This process removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
A phytoplankton called coccolithophores uses calcium carbonate to make their shells.
Coccolithophores produces chemicals that help produce the formation of clouds. Some
scientist believe of the coccolithophores are be threat and there arent many of them
than there will be a reduction of cloud formation over the ocean. This will cause the
reflection of sunlight to decrease and an increasing rate of global warming. Studies
have shown that coccolithophores can adapt to the pH levels. The reproduction of 700
generations of coccolithophores under an acidic environment will cause them to adapt
and grow strong shells. In reality this will set in 100 years later. Organisms just need
time to adapt if the acidity doesnt change anymore.
Not all organisms are getting harmed by the decrease of pH. Plants, like
seagrass, benefits from the excess CO2 because they get their energy from carbon
dioxide and sunlight. This will cause the plants to grow tall and deeper roots. Plants can

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provide homes to many different organism. They are very beneficial to other organism
because they can use them as shelter or giving birth. Jellyfish are not affected by the
decrease in pH levels and while other organism are struggling to survive, jellyfish can
easily compete with other fish for food. With this being the case, we can see jellyfish
dominate some of the ocean area.
Fishes can be affected by the excess acidification. The excess hydrogen ions
and dissolve into the fish's blood and can do some serious damages. The fishes will
want to back to their original state, so they burn extra energy to excrete the excess acid
out of its blood through its gills, kidneys and intestines (The Ocean Portal Team). That
extra bit of energy burned off will reduce other task. For example, the digestion of food
and reproduction will slow down. In 2007, American biologist Danielle Dixon
experimented with excess carbon dioxide and clownfish. It didnt take to long to noticed
that the clownfish thought that every odor were equally attracted. Clownfishes usually
uses smell to stay safe from predators. They seem to not have fear and swim near their
predators. It was discovered that carbon dioxide can change or alter the fishes senses
and behaviors, like sight, hearing, and which way is left and right. This is caused by the
GABA-A receptors in the brain to malfunction. More acidic environment can interfere
with the construction of ear bones and balance organs. For example, acidic
environments affect the squid's ear bones and balance organs. Ear bones and balance
organs are sometimes called statoliths. Statoliths allows squids to sense pressure
around them and direction and movement. Squids are more prone to crush into rock,
corals, or even other organisms.

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To fight ocean acidification, we need to be able to find a way to lower the amount
of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. If we can achieve this goal than the
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and ocean will stabilizes. This will bring back the pH
to normal. As a growing nation, it is hard to lower our carbon emissions. Finding more
carbon sinks is another way to get rid of carbon dioxide. Geoengineering is currently
trying to find technologies to help reduce the carbon dioxide in the air. They had an idea
to grow more phytoplankton in the ocean by adding iron. Man made phytoplankton will
start to bloom and they will absorb the carbon dioxide when they die. However, they
dont know the effects of man made phytoplankton in the food web. Congress only
taken baby steps in trying to prevent further ocean acidification. Congress had passed
the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act. It put money towards
monitoring marine life such as oysters. Scientists wanted 50 million to 100 million pre
year to help them get useful and good information, but the act only gave them 14 million
to 35 million. Another interesting thing that scientists are doing is that they hope to
breed a hybrid mix of oysters and geoducks. They want to create a acidification
resistant strain.
Ocean Acidification doesnt only affects the marine animals but it also affects
other organism outside the ocean. It will limit the food that we will find and cause a
struggle to people to mainly eat marine animals. People are losing their business and
jobs because they have little to nothing to sell. Ocean Acidification is also tied to other
boundaries such as climate change and biodiversity. Animals are losing their lives
because of the carbon emission that we bring. Ocean Acidification will take a long time

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to heal and go back to normal from now on, but if we dont act now than it will take even
longer and have a larger impact to earth as a whole.