Taking action on ocean acidification: opportunities under UNFCCC
By Logaswari M (youth delegate for Singapore ), notes by Mark Cheng , a World Ocean
A simplified explanation for ocean acidification.
The Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere doesn’t all quite stay there. For what is covered in a school syllabus, we know that it can be taken in by trees, become sequestered within the soil and it can float about above us. But more interestingly, as I learnt from Dr Robert Monroe of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at COP 16, it can react with the water in the ocean and release hydrogen ions to cause the water to become acidic.
This occurs in the reaction
CO2 + H2O <=> H2CO3 <=> H+ + HCO3- <=> H+ + H+ + CO32-
This has been happening for as long as there has been Water, Carbon dioxide and area for the 2 to come into contact with each other. But with an increased concentration of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, more of it reacts with the water in the ocean and the ocean gets more acidic.
Another important reaction to note at this point would be the reaction between acids and carbonates. The process of calcification, which is employed by sea creatures to create limestone out of carbonate ions, is greatly disrupted by ocean acidification. The carbonate ions that are needed for the making of shells and other coverings are reacted with the hydrogen ions from the acid. Hence, these creatures have thinner and more brittle shells as the acidity increases.
While the decrease on the pH scale may be insufficient to corrode the human skin or directly poison the organisms that live within it, the impacts of ocean acidification are well observed in members near the bottom of the marine ecosystem. These creatures sustain a large proportion of the ecosystem above them and their decrease in numbers would affect many populations of animals above them in the food chain.
More than the concept of ocean acidification or its effects, I learnt that there is so much more at stake than just our lives, where climate change is concerned. Everything from the atmosphere, to the humans like us who live on the surface to the creatures who dwell in the sea, we are all affected. And this will be the one new reason to continue to protect our Earth.
