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Negative Effects Of Ocean Acidification

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About thirty or forty percent of the carbon dioxide created by human activities is absorbed in bodies of water, including the ocean. What does this mean? Well the burning of fossils fuels emit excess carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which dissolves into the oceans and makes the ocean acidic. The ocean becoming more acidic obviously does not compare to the acidity of sulfuric acid and does not directly harm humans and most animals. The ocean is currently at a pH level of 8.1 which is more on the basic side and orange juice is actually more acidic with a pH level from 3.3 to 4.9. Although the ocean does not seem that acidic the little acidity it does have is having a strong effect on ocean animals and ecosystems. Some negative impacts of ocean …show more content…

I did not expect for the plants to actually absorb the acidity from the water and become acidic itself. My research was confirmed that the plant would break down and die because about two weeks with the plant sample in vinegar the leaves lost their opacity and color.
The lab results involving the vinegar as ocean water substitute was pretty accurate to all the research that I found about calcium carbonate animals and ocean plants. Ultimately both broke down in their own ways and the acidity wore down the samples very quickly. Therefore the lab proves the negative impacts of ocean acidification which involved the breaking down of animals and ecosystems. I do not know if Ocean acidification will throw off the balance of food chains or how it will affect animals in the long run regarding their health, since our lab did not focus on that specifically.
Proving the effects of ocean acidification can be done in many ways, but when they are proven the effects can be harmful to many species in the ocean. It would be nice to see a broader experiment based on ocean acidification that shows the consequences of it to all aspects in the ocean. Since ocean acidification is often compared to climate change, people should try and put as much effort as they do into other global issues toward the problem of ocean …show more content…

Using less energy could be as simple and using public transportation or other methods that do not use gas for transportation. Another example would be to recycle and use environmental friendly products because this would be less fossil fuels burned in factories to create products. This could help with ocean acidification since acidification is the result of air pollution that releases excess carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Some large scale practices that can be used to reduce the negative impacts of ocean acidification are to find new sources of energy and a way to make those sources more used in daily households. Solar energy in one alternate source of energy but the materials used to build solar panels are expensive, so although some people use solar energy most do not because of the price. There also are hydrogen fuelled cars but again those are somewhat of a luxury item and are not in the price range of average

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On the west coast, from Washington State down to California, the levels of acid are increasing and deceasing which gave sea urchins the ability to flourish. They flourish by turning on more of their genes to help create a skeleton. Other parts of the ocean are thriving such as the seagrass in the coral reef by taking the CO2 and converting it into sugars. I believe that the documentary was precise when proving how much fossil fuels are destroying the ocean life. My opinion on the video is that we need to find ways to prevent the wide spread of acidity that is increasing over time across our earth.

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This becomes a much larger problem when Kolbert talks about the reefs on our world. She states: "This is because out in the real world, reefs are constantly being eaten away at by fish and sea urchins and burrowing worms" (Kolbert). What Kolbert means by this is as the PH levels in our oceans drop, the rate at which reefs grow will decrease. With the decrease in production rates, the reefs will not be able to keep up with the fish and other organisms that break them. World wonders will slowly begin to erode away to extinction and

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1772 Words | 8 Pages

Ocean acidification is the drop of pH in the water of the ocean. This happens when the ocean absorbs the carbon within the air directly above it. Since the industrial revolution, the pH of the ocean has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1. It also talks about the impacts ocean acidity has on ocean life, such as the bleaching of various types of coral worldwide. Fish may also succumb to the effects of ocean acidification.

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Humans can cause ocean pollution when they dump sewage in the ocean or on the beach (Doc. 2). The pollution that is put in the ocean will not only affect the ocean animals but can also affect humans (Doc. 2). When a fish eats plastic or garbage it becomes toxic (Doc. 2). If a person eats that toxic fish they will be very sick

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The movie “The Day After Tomorrow” depicts a scenario in a future where humanity does not curb its pollutive ways, paving the way for a global climate shift and an apocalyptic ice age that freezes many great cities. That might be a fictitious reality, but one that is seemingly possible given the way we are destroying the environment. In recent years, there have been increasing discussion about ocean acidification, which Feely referred to as “global warming’s evil twin”. Acidification affects elementary process related to composition and role of marine ecosystem, causing long term impacts on humans (Doney, 2009). Despite the potential seriousness of ocean acidification, little attempts have been made because of the lack of motivation, awareness, capability and diverging interest.

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B. Another effect is that the rising temperature of the ocean is leading to the rising acidity of the ocean. Per edf.org the acidity of the ocean has risen forty percent leading to the death of sea life. Perhaps the most prominent example of this is the Great Barrier Reef. It is estimated that nearly 67% of the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef is either dead or dying.

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Although the impact on reef fish is still uncertain. It is however, known that reef fish are losing habitats due to the impacts on corals. The wellbeing, reproduction and overall health of fish due to chemical runoff over time, is still being investigated (Amelia S. Wenger, 2015). Research has identified that chemical runoff is increasing nutrient levels in the water. It is believed that this increase in nutrients is connected to the increase in crown of thorns starfish population, which poses another threat to the reef by impacting coral cover (Amelia S. Wenger, 2015).

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About 71 percent of our planet Earth is covered by water, and the majority comes from the oceans (about 96.5 percent of all Earth’s water). It remains as the most expansive, diverse, and mysterious places on planet Earth. But it is being threatened by the pollution by people and nature itself. By polluting the habitat of marine organism will indirectly affect the ecosystem of the marine life. Marine life is dying and as the result the oceanic ecosystem is threatened.

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Ever since the industrial revolution commenced, around one third of the carbon dioxide released by human interference has been absorbed by the ocean, which is one of the reasons of the drastic change in climate as well. Without the ocean absorbing carbon dioxide, the carbon dioxide n the atmosphere would be drastically higher, with possibly increasing the levels of climate change. The point of the research is to see how will the pH affect the organisms in the marine ecosystem and does carbonation affect an organism’s mass and form. Many organisms that are part of the marine food chain are going to be affected by ocean acidification due the levels of acidity deteriorating the calcium carbonate within the animal. It turns out

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Modern human life is polluting the world. The products that make our life livable, are a big threat to the oceans. Even places that are untouched by mankind, are experiencing the effects of pollution. Entire populations of fish species are being wiped out by overfishing, not even mentioning the species caught as bycatch. The oceans suffer a lot from pollution as well.

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Marine pollution such as presence of organic matter in the ocean can result in the condition known as hypoxia or oxygen depletion and this can have adverse effect on the marine life including plant and animals and fish. Death of these fish can result in loss of millions of US dollars that are generate from the fishing industry. Marine pollution can also result in presence of foul smell resulting from the decomposing sewage being directed to the ocean and this has the effects to hinder recreational activities taking place in the sea as well as cause discomfort and breathing problem to the surrounding population (Laura, 11).marine pollution can also result in danger to human health. The human swimmers and water sport lovers can become endangered by swimming in the polluted marine waters (Laura,

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Ocean acidification is affecting marine life immensely. When our oceans keep acidifying it causes carbonate ions to be less plentiful and these ions are an important part for marine life such as oysters, clams, sea urchins, and corals to get there structures built and maintained such as their shells and coral skeletons(1). Ocean acidification can also affect some fish 's ability to detect predators putting them at a greater risk and causing the entire food web to be in danger(1). The organisms that are having the most trouble adapting to rising acidity is corals because they produce calcium carbonate to make their rocky outer layer that forms coral reefs(2). Coral reefs are the beautiful ecosystems that are booming with life but since the acidity has been rising and so has the overall temperature of the ocean the coral has been bleaching and has not been able to grow well or even stay alive(2).

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1079 Words | 5 Pages

One of the major threats is Ocean acidification. As the world kept busy on catching up the technology, they somehow forget how to preserve the environment at the same time. For a million years, the ocean played its role to maintain and stable the acidity level in the earth. However, as time pass by, the ocean is unable to stabilise the acidity level due to too high of carbon dioxide (CO2). This situation occurred when the atmosphere that contain carbon dioxide (CO2) in which are then being absorb by the ocean in order to preserve human from exposed to the harmful emission.

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1848 Words | 8 Pages

One of the few major consequences is the change in global ocean pH or known as the ocean acidification. In this report, the importance of CO2 as one of the main contributors to ocean acidification and how to reduce its concentration in the atmosphere is addressed

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1269 Words | 6 Pages

Scientist’s observations in 1961 shows that the temperature of the global ocean has on average increased even at three thousand meters, as well as the observation that the ocean has been absorbing more than eighty percent of heat that is added in to the climate system which causes the sea levels to rise and creates an issue for the islands that are at sea level. The name ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH level of the earth’s oceans which causes their uptake of human activity carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. However, the oceans natural absorption of carbon dioxide helps decrease the climate effect of human activity with the carbon dioxide emissions which is believed in the decreasing pH level which makes the water acidic, then later has a negative effect on the oceans creatures which kills the coral reefs. “Coral bleaching occurs when the symbiosis between corals and their symbiotic zooxanthellae breaks down, resulting in the loss of the symbionts and a rapid whitening of the coral host (thus the term "bleaching")” (The International Coral Reef Initiative).

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