From the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies James Cook University
“Evil twin” threatens world’s oceans, scientists warn
The rise in human emissions of carbon dioxide is driving fundamental and dangerous changes in the chemistry and ecosystems of the world’s oceans, international marine scientists warned today.
“Ocean conditions are already more extreme than those experienced by marine organisms and ecosystems for millions of years,” the researchers say in the latest issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE).
“This emphasises the urgent need to adopt policies that drastically reduce CO2 emissions.”
Ocean acidification, which the researchers call the ‘evil twin of global warming’, is caused when the CO2 emitted by human activity, mainly burning fossil fuels, dissolves into the oceans. It is happening independently of, but in combination with, global warming.
“Evidence gathered by scientists around the world over the last few years suggests that ocean acidification could represent an equal – or perhaps even greater threat – to the biology of our planet than global warming,” co-author Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and The University of Queensland says.
More than 30% of the CO2 released from burning fossil fuels, cement production, deforestation and other human activities goes straight into the oceans, turning them gradually more acidic.
“The resulting acidification will impact many forms of sea life, especially organisms whose shells or skeletons are made from calcium carbonate, like corals and shellfish. It may interfere with the reproduction of plankton species which are a vital part of the food web on which fish and all other sea life depend,” he adds.
The scientists say there is now persuasive evidence that mass extinctions in past Earth history, like the “Great Dying” of 251 million years ago and another wipeout 55 million years ago, were accompanied by ocean acidification, which may have delivered the deathblow to many species that were unable to cope with it.
“These past periods can serve as great lessons of what we can expect in the future, if we continue to push the acidity the ocean even further” said lead author, Dr. Carles Pelejero, from ICREA and the Marine Science Institute of CSIC in Barcelona, Spain.
“Given the impacts we see in the fossil record, there is no question about the need to immediately reduce the rate at which we are emitting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” he said further.
“Today, the surface waters of the oceans have already acidified by an average of 0.1 pH units from pre-industrial levels, and we are seeing signs of its impact even in the deep oceans”, said co-author Dr. Eva Calvo, from the Marine Science Institute of CSIC in Barcelona, Spain.
“Future acidification depends on how much CO2 humans emit from here on – but by the year 2100 various projections indicate that the oceans will have acidified by a further 0.3 to 0.4 pH units, which is more than many organisms like corals can stand”, Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg says.
“This will create conditions not seen on Earth for at least 40 million years”.
“These changes are taking place at rates as much as 100 times faster than they ever have over the last tens of millions of years” Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg says.
Under such circumstances “Conditions are likely to become very hostile for calcifying species in the north Atlantic and Pacific over the next decade and in the Southern Ocean over the next few decades,” the researchers warn.
Besides directly impacting on the fishing industry and its contribution to the human food supply at a time when global food demand is doubling, a major die-off in the oceans would affect birds and many land species and change the biology of Earth as a whole profoundly, Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg adds.
Palaeo-perspectives on ocean acidification by Carles Pelejero, Eva Calvo and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg is published in the latest issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE), number 1232.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
This site dealing with ocean acidification is well worth reading:
http://www.seafriends.org.nz/issues/global/acid.htm
These people are nothing if not relentless.
Same old trick. Acidification when they mean less alkaline. A drop of 0.1 ph (I think that is 8.2 to 8.1 ?) . My swimming pool is about 7.2 to 7.6 and remember this is a logarithmic scale and I still get the usual animals in it, like frogs. They like it so much that they mate in it.
There must have been huge extinctions in the oceans when the C02 was 20x higher in the geologic past. In fact, life must have evolved, not in the primoridial soup of the oceans, but on land and then crawled to the sea….to dissolve or evolve. They have it backwards. Shellfish came after fish.
I think Dumb and Dumberer would have been a better logo.
“Ocean acidification, which the researchers call the ‘evil twin of global warming’, is caused when the CO2 emitted by human activity, mainly burning fossil fuels, dissolves into the oceans. It is happening independently of, but in combination with, global warming.”
Makes one wonder how the ocean knows the CO2 is the evil CO2 from human activity as opposed to the regular non-evil CO2.
What utter rubbish! When the oceans already contain nearly two orders of magnitude more CO2 than the entire atmosphere, and when the first Earth Science experiment in grammar school is to blow through a straw into a glass of (hard) tapwater and watch the calcium carbonate precipitate out the excess CO2, and when the pH of the water in a tropical lagoon may vary three or more points over the course of a single day, how on earth could these so-called scientists be pushing this nonsense?
They are asserting bald faced lies. Why?
I find this highly unlikely. Marine hobbyist have been dosing their salt water tanks with CO2 for generations without any issues. Where do these guys come up with some of these alarmist predictions. 0.3pH units is nothing to coral or fish life. pH in a marine tank can swing more than that on a single day from lights on to lights off. I’m no marine biologist but was an active hobbyist for over 5 years.
Does not ‘evil twin of global warming’ imply that global warming is the good twin?
CO2 failed to warm the globe and it will fail to acidify the oceans. Increased CO2 enables the mechanisms which sequester CO2. This is a self-solving problem.
=======
They’re desperate, meanwhile…
Undersea volcano threatens southern Italy
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/6999229/undersea-volcano-threatens-southern-italy-report/
ROME (AFP) – Europe’s largest undersea volcano could disintegrate and unleash a tsunami that would engulf southern Italy “at any time”, a prominent vulcanologist warned in an interview published Monday.
The Marsili volcano, which is bursting with magma, has “fragile walls” that could collapse, Enzo Boschi told the leading daily Corriere della Sera.
“It could even happen tomorrow,” said Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).
“Our latest research shows that the volcano is not structurally solid, its walls are fragile, the magma chamber is of sizeable dimensions,” he said. “All that tells us that the volcano is active and could begin erupting at any time.”
The event would result in “a strong tsunami that could strike the coasts of Campania, Calabria and Sicily,” Boschi said.
The undersea Marsili, 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) tall and located some 150 kilometres (90 miles) southwest of Naples, has not erupted since the start of recorded history.
It is 70 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide, and its crater is some 450 metres below the surface of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
“A rupture of the walls would let loose millions of cubic metres of material capable of generating a very powerful wave,” Boschi said.
“While the indications that have been collected are precise, it is impossible to make predictions. The risk is real but hard to evaluate.”
I guess we’re supposed to believe that the oceans of the ancient Earth were acidic then?
I’m curious, how many fossil fueled generating plants were in use 40 million years ago?? How many SUVs?? Must have been Wooly Manmouth farts…….
pRadio
This article is obviously geared toward grant-begging. Ocean pH varies a lot, naturally. And because the oceans hold an enormous amount of carbon dioxide compared to the atmosphere, and since human CO2 contributions to the atmosphere are minuscule, ignorant statements like “…by the year 2100 various projections indicate that the oceans will have acidified by a further 0.3 to 0.4 pH units, which is more than many organisms like corals can stand” are pure fear-mongering. These folks just want to get on the grant gravy train.
Ocean pH constantly varies all over the map: click
That chart goes back 5,200 years – well before the first SUV was born.
What “crystal ball” are these people looking at? Perhaps they need to retake high school chemistry.
Monterey Bay pH hasn’t changed since they started taking measurements in 1996
http://sanctuarymonitoring.org/regional_docs/monitoring_projects/100240_167.pdf
“Given the impacts we see in the fossil record, there is no question about the need to immediately reduce the rate at which we are emitting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,”
What sort of science is this? That’s really just one of thew stupidist things I’ve read so far from the warmists.
We must “immediately reduce” carbon emissions, because the fossil record tells us that species have become extinct in the last few hundreds of millions of years.
They don’t seem to have a clue about CO2 chemistry in the oceans that contain so much sodium, calcium, magnesium, lithium, zinc and other basic elements. Sulfur dioxide was the most likely cause of past extinctions.
“These changes are taking place at rates as much as 100 times faster than they ever have over the last tens of millions of years” Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg says?
Go on then, tell us just how much faster it REALLY is changing! Somehow I don’t think I believe it. So an element really can emit & absorb the same gas at one & the same time! How much CO2 do they claim is emitted from the oceans into the atmosphere because of warming seas due to Global Warming? Last time I looked the so-called rate of “acidification” was so small that it would have taken over 3½ thousand years to reach pH neutral if ever!
Mark_K (08:47:58) :-)) Because manmade CO2 is a dirty black & ugly monster-like gas as we’ve seen on UK Govs highly accurate peer-reviewed science based adverts! Simples!
Yes but;
http://www.co2science.org/articles/V13/N9/EDIT.php
A good article with references worth looking up.
H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) forms in the atmosphere from SO3 from unscrubbed coal plant emissions and is responsible for acid rain.
China has a lot of unscrubbed coal plants. The US used to as well. I wonder whether this source of acidification is significant.
These sorts of scaremongering papers certainly don’t ever mention it.
The Cook University cooking the books again!
Most of these reefs did not exist, at least in their present locations, 15000 years ago. The area where they now exist was dry land before the great global warming that melted most of the ice cap and raised sea levels 300 ft. Like climate, ocean conditions are never static.
That short chap looks just like Danny de Vito. I could be wrong about that.
With all the limestone sitting in and around the world’s oceans, wouldn’t one think a little carbon dioxide wouldn’t make much difference ?