More evidence on the imminent danger of ocean acidification was published last month. The study from Bristol University warned that acidification is progressing faster than at any time during the past 65 million years, with potentially devastating effects for marine ecosystems. According to the paper’s abstract:

In our simulation of future ocean conditions, we find an undersaturation with respect to carbonate in the deep ocean that exceeds that experienced during the Palaeocene–Eocene thermal maximum and could endanger calcifying organisms. Furthermore, our simulations show higher rates of environmental change at the surface for the future than the Palaeocene–Eocene thermal maximum, which could potentially challenge the ability of plankton to adapt.

During the Palaeocene-Eocene extinction, bottom-dwelling organisms were disproportionately impacted, with surface-dwelling plankton relatively unaffected. This time around, though, things might be different. The speed of acidification (estimated to be 10 times faster than previous events) will prevent many of the adaptations that prevented even greater extinctions in the past.

Ocean Acidification

Ocean acidification will destroy coral reefs

So why is this relevant? The main reason is that many of the small marine calcifiers affected by ocean acidification form the foundation of the ocean food web. And if their numbers collapse, what will happen further up the chain? And what will happen to us?

Finally, remember these important points:

Acidification of the oceans has been called “the other carbon dioxide problem”, as it is not directly related to global warming or climate change, but rather the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater.

Geoengineering schemes that aim to cool the planet without removing CO2 from the atmosphere will have no effect on ocean pH

The accelerating rate of acidification makes it likely that major marine structures like Australia’s Great Barrier Reef will stop growing and start dissolving by 2050.

Although climate change skeptics might point out that coral reefs have survived past CO2 peaks, it is the speed of change (preventing migration and genetic adaptation) and the inability of the oceans to buffer increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, that have the potential to cause a mass extinction.

See the paper’s abstract here. Read a related editorial at the YALE 360 site called An Ominous Warning on the Effects of Ocean Acidification. Photo by Tom Clifton/flickr.

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