Ocean acidification

This thread is for discussion of ocean acidification, its causes, properties and ramifications.

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15 Responses to “Ocean acidification”

  1. THREAD says:
    October 19, 2010 at 2:31 pm

    The PH Scale

    0 – 14,

    7 is neutral,

    7 -14 is alkaline,

    0 – 7 is acid,

    the ocean is 8+

    Go figger!

    Reply
  2. THREAD says:
    October 23, 2010 at 11:16 am

    Acid Seas, Back to Basic

    Dennis Ambler, February 2010

    Reply
  3. Richard C (NZ) says:
    October 23, 2010 at 11:25 am

    Huff Post is really getting silly now.

    Climate Science Round-Up: Ocean Fertilization (or Climate Liposuction)

    Reply
  4. THREAD says:
    October 29, 2010 at 8:46 pm

    Ocean Acidification Database

    CO2 Science

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  5. Richard C (NZ) says:
    November 3, 2010 at 11:11 am

    NGO pleads for $15 billion “ocean acidification” monitoring system

    Posted on November 1, 2010 by Anthony Watts

    Via Eurekalert, from the NGO Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO), a press release that says, “panic! please send money”. Here’s the punch line:

    The Foundation says the average level of pH at the ocean surface has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1 units, “rendering the oceans more acidic than they have been for 20 million years,”

    Note that any pH lower than 7.0 is considered “acidic”. Distilled (pure) water has a pH of 7.0. Right now the ocean with a pH of 8.1 is considered “basic”.

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  6. Richard C (NZ) says:
    November 12, 2010 at 2:33 pm

    Are oceans becoming more acidic and is this a threat to marine life?

    By Dr J Floor Anthoni (2007)

    seafriends.org.nz

    Reply
  7. Andy says:
    July 9, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    The great men of Otago (Doug Mackie and Keith Hunter) are planning an 18 part series on Ocean Acidification over at Skeptical Science.

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/Mackie_OA_not_OK_post_0.html

    As Mackie points out at Hot topic

    “Denialists have not touched ocean acidification because they don’t understand it.”

    No Doug, that’s right.
    Actually, we haven’t had time to deal with this particular issue, and I am so glad that the great NZers in Otago have managed to lay claim to this last bastion of CAGW

    Don’t worry guys, the Zulus are coming.

    Reply
  8. Richard C (NZ) says:
    October 4, 2011 at 9:09 am

    NIWA’s acidic ocean
    —————————————————————————————————————————
    New Climate Change Atlas for our massive ocean real estate

    Monday, 3 October 2011, 9:22 am
    Press Release: NIWA

    The seas surrounding New Zealand could warm by up to 4oC in the coming century.

    The last ten years of monthly monitoring results have shown an increase in acidity in Subantarctic waters off Otago. This is probably due to the recorded increase in atmospheric CO2 and subsequent CO2 uptake by the ocean. This trend is consistent with that observed in long-term time series studies in other regions of the ocean. Ocean acidification has been shown to affect reproduction, behavior, and physiological functions of some species.

    Background facts

    • surface waters will warm, freshen (i.e., become less salty), and so become less dense. This will increase the density gradient between surface and deeper waters (i.e., stratification), which will reduce the upward supply of plant nutrients to the surface from deeper waters

    • the surface layer where the phytoplankton live will become thinner and so the phytoplankton will receive more light

    • the warmer ocean will contain less dissolved oxygen, and the volume of the mid-water column oxygen-deficient zones will increase

    • increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will enter the ocean making it more acidic and causing carbonate shells to dissolve at shallower depths

    • there will be large-scale changes in wind fields, affecting ocean currents and vertical mixing

    • storm frequency and dust deposition will increase, influencing nutrient supply.

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1110/S00002/new-climate-change-atlas-for-our-massive-ocean-real-estate.htm
    —————————————————————————————————————————
    Massive spin by NIWA predicated on the words “could warm”.

    Apparently the ocean is already acidic and it WILL become MORE acidic according to NIWA.

    The ocean is basic (pH 8 -9) according to this scale:-

    http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/184ph.html

    Fish reproduction is affected by acidity pH 4 – 5 and fish die in acidity pH 3 – 4.according to college education material.

    So NIWA:-

    Is the ocean acidic or basic?

    Is it acidic and nearing pH 4?

    What was the actual pH “acidity” measurement of Subantarctic waters off Otago (and why didn’t you include that in your Press Release)?

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  9. Richard C (NZ) says:
    February 23, 2012 at 9:20 am

    A team led by Dr. Daniel Mayor, an Independent Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab, investigated how future global warming and ocean acidification scenarios affected the health of copepod eggs.

    Unlike many other climate-change studies, they repeated their experiment at a later date and found different results.

    Dr. Mayor said: “Both of our experiments indicated that the health of copepod eggs remains unaffected when they are exposed to ocean acidification levels predicted for the end of the 21st century. This is great news.

    http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-climate-one-off.html

    Reply

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