Seafood production also may be impacted by increased acidification
Rutgers University
Corals, which are threatened by global climate change and ocean acidification, support a wide range of reef fish at Baker reef in the Pacific Remote Islands.
Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Morgan Winston
A nuclear war that cooled Earth could worsen the impact of ocean acidification on corals, clams, oysters and other marine life with shells or skeletons, according to the first study of its kind.
“We found that the ocean’s chemistry would change, with global cooling dissolving atmospheric carbon into the upper ocean and exacerbating the primary threat of ocean acidification,” said co-author Alan Robock, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.
The study is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Scientists looked at how climate changes stemming from nuclear war would affect the oceans. They used a global climate model in which the climate reacted to soot (black carbon) in smoke that would be injected into the upper atmosphere from fires ignited by nuclear weapons. They considered a range of hypothetical nuclear wars, including a relatively small one between India and Pakistan and a large one between the United States and Russia.
Excess carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels enters the ocean and reacts with water to form carbonic acid, which decreases ocean pH (makes it more acidic) and lowers levels of carbonate ions. Corals, clams, oysters and other marine organisms use carbonate ions to create their shells and skeletons, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A more acidic ocean makes it harder to form and maintain shells and skeletons.
The massive amount of smoke from a nuclear conflict would block sunlight and cause global cooling. The cooling would temporarily boost the pH in the surface ocean over five years and briefly lessen the decline in pH from ocean acidification. But the cooling would also lead to lower levels of carbonate ions for about 10 years, challenging shell maintenance in marine organisms.
“We have known for a while that agriculture on land would be severely affected by climate change from nuclear war,” Robock said. “A lingering question is whether the survivors could still get food from the sea. Our study is the first step in answering this question.”
The next step is to combine projected changes in ocean chemistry with projected changes in temperature and salinity and assess their impacts on shellfish and fish stocks throughout the oceans, he said.
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Joshua Coupe, a Rutgers doctoral student, contributed to the study, which also included scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder; University of Texas Rio Grande Valley; National Center for Atmospheric Research; U.S. Department of Energy; and University of California, Santa Barbara.
It is my understanding that the leaders have a “menu” of cities to bomb. There is no all in.
Maybe trump, Putin and xi have booked a table at some New Zealand or Argentina restaurant to watch the fireworks knowing not on anyone s list .
Nevertheless they won’t be worried about radioactive acidified climate stress crabs.
In Thunberg this is known as a Fimbulwinter.
I guess the coming natural cooling will also harm ocean life. A frozen ocean makes it real difficult to find fish.
Nuclear winter is a myth.
There is no scientific basis for this Cold War theory.
On the contrary, a “nuclear summer” is more likely.
global thermonuclear war.
what can’t it do?
its almost as powerful as CO2…………….
will anyone care about the oceans after a war like that?
glowing fish can be cool but still…..
No actual data was harmed, or even used in the making of this totally pointless bit of mental self stimulation.
I vividly recall the nuclear attack drills and diving under my school desk for cover when I was young. Even then, I was quite certain that that small desk top was not going to save me from a nuclear attack nor the fallout and that the entire exercise was pointless and futile. I guess it gave some bureaucrats something to do and made people feel like they had some control over Armageddon which, I suppose, made some feel better.
I suspect worrying about what happens to corals, clams, oysters and other marine life with shells or skeletons in the event of a nuclear war has the same placebo effect for some but the endeavor is just as pointless and useless as diving under one’s desk.
Even as a kid, I never wasted time worrying about a nuclear attack as it was and is something beyond my control. The same goes for what happens to marine life. In fact, the latter doesn’t even register on my list of things to worry about and I’m surprised it does for these goofball “scientists”.
The desk dive was to protect us from flying glass and debris from the blast wave, and heat if close enough to feel it at dangerous levels.
The odds of human extinction in even the worst possible imaginable nuclear war are essentially nil. A nuclear exchange wouldn’t be fought totally with “countervalue” targets, such as cities, but even if every warhead were used to maximize fatalities, the total wouldn’t reach a billion deaths.
Models at the height of the Cold War, with more and bigger warheads than now, estimated some 500 million. A war involving China could increase that toll, despite far fewer nukes deployed today than in the 1980s.
https://youtu.be/HgyjlqhiTV8
I have heard it said a long time ago now – that an atomic bomb could ruin your whole day.
Geophysical Research LettersVolume 47, Issue 3
Research Letter
The Potential Impact of Nuclear Conflict on Ocean Acidification
Nicole S. Lovenduski Cheryl S. Harrison Holly Olivarez … See all authors
First published:21 January 2020
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086246
Abstract
We demonstrate that the global cooling resulting from a range of nuclear conflict scenarios would temporarily increase the pH in the surface ocean by up to 0.06 units over a 5‐year period, briefly alleviating the decline in pH associated with ocean acidification.
Conversely, the global cooling dissolves atmospheric carbon into the upper ocean, driving a 0.1 to 0.3 unit decrease in the aragonite saturation state ( Ωₐᵣₐ𝓰 ) that persists for 10 years. The peak anomaly in pH occurs 2 years post conflict, while the Ωₐᵣₐ𝓰 anomaly peaks 4‐ to 5‐years post conflict.
The decrease in Ωₐᵣₐ𝓰 would exacerbate a primary threat of ocean acidification: the inability of marine calcifying organisms to maintain their shells/skeletons in a corrosive environment.
Our results are based on sensitivity simulations conducted with a state‐of‐the‐art Earth system model integrated under various black carbon (soot) external forcings. Our findings suggest that regional nuclear conflict may have ramifications for global ocean acidification.
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Microbial corrosion, also called bacterial corrosion, bio-corrosion, microbiologically influenced corrosion, or microbially induced corrosion (MIC), is corrosion caused or promoted by microorganisms, usually chemoautotrophs. It can apply to both metals and non-metallic materials.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org › wiki
Microbial corrosion – Wikipedia
https://www.google.com/search?q=biology+corrosion&oq=biology+corrosion+&aqs=chrome.
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– The decrease in Ωₐᵣₐ𝓰 would exacerbate a primary threat of ocean acidification: the inability of marine calcifying organisms to maintain their shells/skeletons in a corrosive environment. –> The decrease in Ωₐᵣₐ𝓰 as any ocean pH neutralisation wouldn’t noticeably affect marine organisms.
[ Our results are based on sensitivity simulations conducted with a state‐of‐the‐art Earth system model integrated under various black carbon (soot) external forcings. Our findings suggest that regional nuclear conflict may have ramifications for global ocean acidification. ]
– [ ] under various black carbon (soot) external forcings. Our findings suggest that regional nuclear conflict may have ramifications for global ocean acidification. –> various black carbon (soot) external forcings are business as usual at Earth’s conditions, terms since ~4.8 billion years with vulcanoe activities, continental movements, subduction / pressure zones.
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Generally:
– “ocean acidification” is in fact a decrease in Ωₐᵣₐ𝓰 and leads to ocean pH neutralisation.
– black carbon (soot) external forcings aren’t new “ramifications” in the planets history.
– Studies based on ocean acidification and atmospheric deposits try to associate corrosion with hazards, although corrosion is simply an important nutritional basis for all organisms.
– atmospheric deposits are business as usual in Earth’s history.