Ocean acidification: how climate change is affecting our oceans.
Sat, 17 Jan 2009 1:34 pm – Posted by Kirstie_Knowles | 15 Comments
While the impacts of climate change on land are hotly discussed, its effect on our oceans and marine life tend to fall into the ‘out of sight out of mind’ black hole. Yet the effect of increased carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere is likely to have significant impacts both on our marine life and on us - our society and our economy.
Our oceans are one of our most important carbon sinks – absorbing around a third of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by burning fossil fuels. When CO2 is dissolved in water, a new compound is formed – carbonic acid. High concentrations of carbonic acid can have effects on other compounds in our waters – calcium carbonate being one of them.