Ocean Acidification : Our biggest challenges for the ocean and for the planet are problems of perception.
Human activities discharge Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere that leads to atmospheric warming and climate changes. Almost a half to a third of the Carbon Dioxide released due to human activities is being absorbed into the oceans.
Even though this helps reduce the rate of atmospheric warming and climate change, it also has an immediate chemical effect on seawater known as ocean acidification.
Since the industrial revolution, for more than 200 years, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased because of the burning of fossil fuels and land-use change.
The ocean water absorbs about 30 percent of the carbon dioxide, which is released into the atmosphere. As the levels of carbon dioxide increase, so does the sea level.
As the seawater absorbs CO2, a chain of chemical reactions occurs, resulting in increased hydrogen ions concentration. This increase results in the seawater becoming more acidic and causes carbonated ions to become relatively less abundant.
The United Nations Environment Program has mentioned that ocean acidification could alter species composition, biodiversity, fishing industry and tourism.
Carbonated icons are an essential building block from structures such as shells and coral skeletons. Decreased carbonate ions can make the building and maintaining of shells and other calcium carbonate structures difficult to calcify organisms such as clams, sea urchins, oysters, shallow water corals, and calcareous plankton and deep-sea corals.
These changes in the chemistry of the ocean can affect the behaviour of the non-calcifying organisms as well. Certain fish’s – which can detect predators – are being decreased in more acidic waters. As these marine organisms are at risk, the whole food web might also be at risk.
Ocean acidification affects all the oceans in the world, along with coastal estuaries and waterways. Several economies are dependent on shellfish and fish, and people worldwide depend on food from the oceans as their leading sources for protein.
Marine scientists are also worried that the process of ocean acidification possesses a severe threat to marine life and the cultures which depend on the ocean for their livelihood and food.
Ocean acidification also has an adverse effect on the health of humans. Humans are intricately linked with the health of the ocean. We humans have relied on the ocean for resources such as food, recreation, medication and transportation. One of the most apparent connections is with seafood.
One of the most effective ways for limiting ocean acidification is to act on climate change – implementing solutions dramatically reducing the use of fossils fuels. When global warming emissions are controlled, future warming will be limited, eventually decreasing the marine ecosystems’ harm.
The oceans in the world’s Polar Regions – in the Arctic and Antarctic – are especially sensitive to ocean acidification. The Bay of Bengal in India is another main focus of research, partly because of the unique seawater characteristics and partly because of the poor data coverage with the use of traditional methods.
