Well, we humans are emitting a lot of carbon dioxide, and
about 40% of what we’ve emitted has been sucked up from the atmosphere by the
ocean. The ocean can hold a lot of carbon dioxide because the carbon can hide
in all of those various forms (see post below) although the ocean uptake rate might go down in the future.
The ocean soaking up carbon dioxide is both a good and a bad thing. It’s a good thing because carbon dioxide in
the ocean does not trap the heat our Earth is radiating back out into space,
and therefore doesn’t contribute to global warming like carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere does. It’s a bad thing because all of this extra
carbon means the ocean is becoming more acidic (arguably less basic) due to all
of the extra carbonic acid being formed from carbon dioxide.
Now, you don’t have to be afraid of your swim trunks
dissolving in corrosive seawater anytime soon. Even the most extreme projections of what
might happen still have the ocean more basic than perfectly neutral drinking
water, and way less acidic than Coke… but it is still a pretty big concern for
the organisms that evolved in the basic ocean and, presumably, like it that way. There are a couple of critters at or near the
base of the ocean food chain that form shells out of a mineral formed from
carbonate, which is the most basic of carbon dioxide’s many guises. Computer model simulations suggest that the
availability of carbonate could decrease by 50% by the year 2100 if we continue
emitting carbon dioxide as we have. There
are other important creatures that make their shells out of the same mineral,
including ones we eat (e.g. clams) and ones that create entire habitats that
other species rely on (e.g. corals). There’s
a huge amount of ongoing research into what this would do to these critters and
the creatures that rely on them, but I’ll sum it up by saying that I’m worried
for the little dudes. I’m just imagining
the reverse situation of some sea creature venting gas into the atmosphere that
dissolves our bones, and it’s making me unhappy!
By
Brendan Carter
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| Taking CO2 water samples |
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| CO2 lab |
