OCEAN ACIDITY Morgan Rosenberg and Eliana Manangon

Ocean Acidification Approximately 93 percent of the CO 2 is found in the oceans. Marine plants and animals play a role in the uptake and release of carbon dioxide in the ocean. Plants, primarily phytoplankton but also macrophytes such as this seaweed, take up carbon dioxide and release oxygen, which oxygen-dependent animals need to survive. In the 1980s, the oceans removed an estimated 2.0±0.6 pg of anthropogenic CO 2 each year. Because humans are producing CO 2 at an ever increasing rate, the average ocean removal rate increased to 2.4±0.5 pg of carbon each year in the 1990s

Changes in Ocean Acidity Directly related to increased CO 2 in atmosphere About ¼ of the CO 2 in the atmosphere goes into the ocean Ocean acidity has increased by 30% since the Industrial Revolution pH from to in about 250 years pH estimated to drop another 0.3 to 0.5 by 2100 Environmental and economic concerns: Organisms with calcium carbonate shells, such as microscopic plankton, corals, and shellfish dissolve Corals lose calcification rates Countries dependent on marine organisms face economic problems