But one piece of good news, according to Feely, is the rapid development of tools to monitor acidification.
They include a new instrument, developed by researchers at the University of South Florida, that can be placed on commercial vessels to collect measurements of pH and other indicators of ocean carbon levels as the ships traverse the seas.
A new West Coast ocean acidification observing system is also planned, Feely said, with several observation sites manned by different research institutions, such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
Ed Miles, a professor of marine studies and public affairs at the University of Washington, said the prospect of a coordinated federal ocean acidification research program is welcome news, especially given the conditions Feely observed off the California coast in 2008.
"We had better invest in expanding our observing capacity, because what happened in the open and coastal ocean was a major surprise," Miles said. "We can't afford to be taken by surprise of that sort."
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10 Comments
Add CommentThis article seems to repeatedly refer to atmospheric CO2 levels and speculate about its affect on oceanic CO2 levels. Is no historical oceanic CO2 level data available? I would have guessed that seafloor drilling would provide at least indicators that could be used to generate reliable data, rather than simply presuming an apparently fixed relationship with atmospheric CO2.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHello Venus!!! We're coming to join you. I think the EPA is gonna have to start cracking down even harder on these CO2 polluters.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJamesDavis:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've never seen somone so utterly enthralled with and cheering on destruction and disaster. I hope you won't be disappointed when it all goes...Yawwwnnn...
re jtdwyer comments....Yes SCIAM, change the headline. There is no mention of oceanic acid levels relative to 800K years in the article and no hard evidence presented to this effect. Add this to the shoddy body of reporting out there.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe story lacks substance. What does "30 percent more acidic" mean? Do we know the pH of the ocean before the industrial revolution, or is this just another "proxy"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThese are not idle questions; pH is not a linear relationship but a logarithmic scale. Going from pH 7 (neutral), each 10-fold change in H+ concentration produces a "1" change in pH. What that means is that the absolute amount of CO2 in terms of relative change depends on where you were to start with. To the extend that CO2 merely dissolves in water, it does not by itself change pH but a portion of the CO2 will or may change to carbonic acid, a weak acid.
This cite seems to have some problems but it is better than nothing:
http://www.acid-base.com/terminology.php
(The author makes a lot of noise about H+ when it loses an electron, but the fact is that H= is entirely appropriate since the atom has become positively charged).
Citation: (beware, it too appears to be a bit unscientific although it cites some good research)
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/criteria/aqlife/marine-ph.html
"As more CO2 dissolves in the ocean, it reduces ocean pH, which changes the chemistry of the water." Up to a point, yes and that point ought to have been declared.
Meanwhile, it is like carbonated soda -- if the oceans have too much, they'll give up CO2 to achieve an equilibrium:
http://www.chem.usu.edu/~sbialkow/Classes/3600/Overheads/Carbonate/CO2.html
One of the papers in a series of argumentative papers showing that the science is NOT settled: (but getting more scientific!)
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/reprint/319/5863/570b
A weakness in this paper is the assumption that the rate ofCO2 emissions will increase (an integral of the actual accumulated CO2) to 2100 producing a sense of urgency. However, this is not only unrealistic, it is impossible to achieve. The advent of $4 per gallon gasoline changed driving patterns, initially by a small amount but as people change automobiles and driving patterns (shorter commutes) the cumulative effect is much gereater, this author below estimates 4 percent driving reduction for 10 percent increase in price. However, a feedback mechanism exists that impacts the total economy much more than is apparent from a simple price rise of gasoline.
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/88xx/doc8893/01-14-GasolinePrices.pdf
That's 58 pages but has plenty of charts 'n stuff.
I'd do about anything to avoid debating all of the questionable measurements and statistics being thrown around, but this article seems to be based solely on unfounded data. Not that I'm going to argue either way...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"A 30% rise since the Industrial Revolution"
"Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the oceans have absorbed about a third of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions. That has resulted in water 30 percent more acidic than it was before factories, cars, planes and other fossil fuel-burning machines became widespread."
Apparently the reader is expected to simply accept the author's assertions. Frankly, I'm extremely skeptical of all assertions related to the climate, but I certainly cannot blindly accept these.
Some of the complaining posters here, mggordon in particular would do well to follow some of the links provided with this post before attempting, unsuccessfully, I might add, to muddy the water (sic) in relation to ocean acidification
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJohn Saint-Smith - I must be missing something, but my attempts to follow links didn't lead me to any understanding of how any of these assertions had been determined. Maybe I'm just a natural born complainer, but I don't find anything substantive here.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder why the author does not mention the ph of ocean water? Perhaps it is because it is above 8. Making the ocean
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisbasic and thus there is no acidification of the ocean.
It is becoming less basic. There is 50 times the co2 of the atmosphere in the ocean. An atmospheric increase of co2 is not going to bring down the Ph level to 7 (neutral) let alone make the ocean acidic. I truly wonder how fresh water mollusks make their shells.
A couple of pictures of marine plants and corals thriving in a co2 volcanic vent.
<a href="http://jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003220.html">A couple of pictures of bubbling co2.</a>
Science_rules_politics_drools - corals thriving in a CO2 rich vent does seem to be pretty substantial empirical counter-evidence! Would you please add a comment to the article: "Can Corals Adapt to Climate Change and Ocean Acidification?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks