No, not LSD. I’m talking about ocean acidification. It’s happening now and is affecting waters near the West Coast 100 years earlier than predicted.
That’s according to a study published in the journal Science on May 22 and described in two follow-up articles: One in the Seattle Times and one on CNN.com. During ship-based surveys last year, scientists found that acidified water was being pushed up onto the continental shelf — the shallower ocean fringes where most marine animals live — from Vancouver Island to Baja, California. They had expected acidified water to remain in the deep ocean and not appear on the shelf for another 100 years.
Ocean water becomes more acidic by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which forms carbonic acid in the sea water. This slightly acidic sea water corrodes the shells and skeletons of oysters, clams, mussels, coral, sea snails and plankton “faster than they can rebuild them,” an oceanographer told the Times. Acidic water can also kill some fish eggs and larvae. Species such as salmon and pollack that feed on some of these creatures could see their food sources dry up. Since plankton form the base of the marine food chain, the impacts of acidic water could easily multiply.
The acidity scientists have measured is not harmful to humans. “We’re not talking battery acid,” another scientist told the Times. Rather, ocean Ph has become slightly more acidic over the last few centuries. The carbonic acid is also what’s in soda drinks.
Richard Feely, a NOAA oceanographer and lead author of the study, estimates that the oceans have absorbed 525 billion tons of carbon dioxide since the Industrial Revolution. The acidified waters upwelling near the West Coast contain carbon dioxide taken from the atmosphere 50 years ago. That’s when this water was last at the surface, before traveling along the bottom as part of the “ocean conveyor” that moves cold water from the North Atlantic to North Pacific. Scientists expect the upwelling water to be a bit more acidic each year.
This has bad implications for marine life off the West Coast and for the shellfish industry there. Nobody’s sure exactly what will happen. The food chain could collapse or we could see substitutions in the food chain — ones that may not satisfactorily replace what we’re used to. Ocean acid — it’s a bad trip all around.
The report on my imminent death is premature. I have been sloshing around in the basins on the crust for more than four billion years. I now cover nearly 71 per cent of the planet. Since the last ice age I have lifted myself out of the basin by 120 metres and scared the tribes of Noah to the higher ground. During deep time I became the universal solvent for the volcanoes and the clouds. I have taken up as much salt as required by local circumstances and sometimes give it back in hot shallows and desert areas of my world. I have given man the salt in his blood. Your CO2 output is infinitesimally small. I have absorbed as much gas as I need to maintain balance with the organic world within me and on land. The exchange is so peaceful that science calls it equilibrium. I can absorb more CO2, if the plants do not need it, and it does not give me acid imbalance. My pH will remain basic no matter what you say. These variations you measure have come and gone many uncountable times on the planet and your baseline is too small to know the truth. What you do not get is that warming of the oceans releases CO2 and other gasses from my water, while cooling my water allows me to take up CO2 in vast amounts to nestle with the other molecules in my coldest most remote realms. I can absorb all that man can produce because your impact is feeble compared to my capacity.
Please watch me with humility for you cannot change me. I am the ongoing sink for the planet, and I am huge and my heat content is beyond your estimation. Measure me here and there with your microscopes but know that I will never be that way in that place again. Open your mind to the infinite cycles of chemistry and physics and kneel on my beach. You can only hurt me by not respecting my infinite ability to change chemistry and temperature in all the corners of the seas. My CO2 feeds your plants and your plants provide all the oxygen you breathe. Your base line is infinitesimally small yet your mouth is wide open.
Neptune..
That’s a great title.
This such a horrifying problem I’m grateful for humor whenever
it pops up.
I’m doing outreach for a documentary on ocean acidification,
A Sea Change. So I get to think about it a lot. :}
I think it’s clear how little we know about the systems of the earth and how they cope. I feel as if the more we know the more we know we do not know. Every tapestry of life, every insect, body of water, bird is interconnected in ways we can only guess at.
Dagny McKinley
http://www.onnotextiles.com
organic apparel
the Oceans are not on acid. The oceans are undeniably bacic and their pH is not challenged by CO2. The scientific base line is far too small for the alarmism of the media. The west coast upwelling is a natural phenomenon that has been occurring for eons and is not ‘corrosive’. That’s not correct.
As Neptune (above) clearly states. CO2 dissolves better in cold water and bubbles out of warm water. Shake your warm Dr. Pepper if you want experimental proof.
Dr. Manns, how can you say what these scientists have observed is not correct? Dr. Feely and team went out and took water samples all along the West Coast and found that some of the water on the continental shelf is now slightly more acidic. Please read their report here: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/320/5882/1490
ScienceNOW had an interesting piece on the topic of ocean acidification recently as well. “A Volcanic Preview of Acidic Oceans” describes a study done near Ischia, a small island off of the southwest coast of Italy. Volcanic vents in the ocean near Ischia release 2 million liters of CO2 per day, making the waters a preview of acidic conditions expected in more parts of the ocean by 2100.
The researchers found that a certain type of algae severel diminished in the acidic waters, and corals and sea urchins were non-existent. There were 30 percent fewer species in the acidic waters. See this link for the story, http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/609/2?etoc
I haven’t read the full report yet but the acidification of the oceans stands to reason. I am a practising medical practioner and acid-base balance is a very important part of the homeostasis of the organism, and small alterations of this have some profound effects. Equally tropical fish tank hobbyists go to great lengths to preserve the correct pH, O2 concentrations etc. The more you look at how the planet works, the more you have to agree with James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis.