Rising Acidity Threatens Food Web of Oceans

Acidity levels in the world’s oceans are rising so fast, they’re posing a major threat to the survival of coral reefs, shellfish and the marine food web in general – and, the cause of that rise in acidity is none other than CO2. The oceans have long buffered the effects of climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide, but as the gas dissolves, it makes saltwater more acidic.

The study was performed by a panel of 155 scientists from 26 countries and other international groups, and calls for “urgent action” to reduce CO2 emissions.

From The New York Times:

“Severe damages are imminent,” the group said Friday in a statement summing up its deliberations at a symposium in Monaco last October. The statement, called the Monaco Declaration, said increasing acidity was interfering with the growth and health of shellfish and eating away at coral reefs, processes that would eventually affect marine food webs generally.

Already, the group said, there have been detectable decreases in shellfish and shell weights, and interference with the growth of coral skeletons.

“The chemistry is so fundamental and changes so rapid and severe that impacts on organisms appear unavoidable,” according to James Orr, who headed the symposium’s scientific committee.

The group warns that ocean acidification may render most regions chemically inhospitable to coral reefs by 2050. That will fundamentally change the complex ecosystems throughout the world’s oceans, disturbing the food chain. Considering how much we land-dwellers depend upon the ocean to support us, this is bad news indeed. The only answer, according to the panel, is to limit future atmospheric levels of CO2. We’ve got to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and we’ve got to do it now.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

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