#ocean acidification

[kp777]

By Julia Conley

Common Dreams

April 25, 2023

Scientists are so alarmed by a new study on ocean warming that some declined to speak about it on the record, the BBC reported Tuesday.

"One spoke of being 'extremely worried and completely stressed,'" the outlet reported regarding a scientist who was approached about research published in the journal Earth System Science Data on April 17, as the study warned that the ocean is heating up more rapidly than experts previously realized—posing a greater risk for sea-level rise, extreme weather, and the loss of marine ecosystems.

Scientists from institutions including Mercator Ocean International in France, Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the United States, and Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research collaborated to discover that as the planet has accumulated as much heat in the past 15 years as it did in the previous 45 years, the majority of the excess heat has been absorbed by the oceans.

In March, researchers examining the ocean off the east coast of North America found that the water's surface was 13.8°C, or 14.8°F, hotter than the average temperature between 1981 and 2011.

The study notes that a rapid drop in shipping-related pollution could be behind some of the most recent warming, since fuel regulations introduced in 2020 by the International Maritime Organization reduced the heat-reflecting aerosol particles in the atmosphere and caused the ocean to absorb more energy.

But that doesn't account for the average global ocean surface temperature rising by 0.9°C from preindustrial levels, with 0.6°C taking place in the last four decades.

The study represents "one of those 'sit up and read very carefully' moments," said former BBC science editor David Shukman.

Lead study author Karina Von Schuckmann of Mercator Ocean International told the BBC that "it's not yet well established, why such a rapid change, and such a huge change is happening."

"We have doubled the heat in the climate system the last 15 years, I don't want to say this is climate change, or natural variability or a mixture of both, we don't know yet," she said. "But we do see this change."

Scientists have consistently warned that the continued burning of fossil fuels by humans is heating the planet, including the oceans. Hotter oceans could lead to further glacial melting—in turn weakening ocean currents that carry warm water across the globe and support the global food chain—as well as intensified hurricanes and tropical storms, ocean acidification, and rising sea levels due to thermal expansion.

A study published earlier this year also found that rising ocean temperatures combined with high levels of salinity lead to the "stratification" of the oceans, and in turn, a loss of oxygen in the water.

"Deoxygenation itself is a nightmare for not only marine life and ecosystems but also for humans and our terrestrial ecosystems," researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in January. "Reducing oceanic diversity and displacing important species can wreak havoc on fishing-dependent communities and their economies, and this can have a ripple effect on the way most people are able to interact with their environment."

The unusual warming trend over recent years has been detected as a strong El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is expected to form in the coming months—a naturally occurring phenomenon that warms oceans and will reverse the cooling impact of La Niña, which has been in effect for the past three years.

"If a new El Niño comes on top of it, we will probably have additional global warming of 0.2-0.25°C," Dr. Josef Ludescher of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research told the BBC.

The world's oceans are a crucial tool in moderating the climate, as they absorb heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases.

Too much warming has led to concerns among scientists that "as more heat goes into the ocean, the waters may be less able to store excess energy," the BBC reported.

The anxiety of climate experts regarding the new findings, said the global climate action movement Extinction Rebellion, drives home the point that "scientists are just people with lives and families who've learnt to understand the implications of data better."

Read more.

#climate change #global warming #ocean warming #ocean acidification #deep ocean currents #degradation of ecosystems #ocean deoxygenation

[wachinyeya]

#good news #environmentalism #science #environment #nature #carbon removal #carbon sinks #carbon sequestration #singapore #ocean carbon #ocean acidification

[todropscience]

FUTURE OCEAN CONDITIONS INDUCE NECROSIS IN REEF SPONGES

Oceans are rapidly warming and acidifying in the context of climate change, threatening sensitive marine biota including coral reef sponges, oceans more acids and hot can can impact host health and associated microbiome. Now, australian scientists have found when areef sponge is exposed to a 3 °C increase in seawater temperature, as is expected in the future, the sponge loses an important microbe, which could explain why sponge tissue dies.

Marine sponges are highly diverse, filter-feeding benthic animals, which play essential roles in the ocean, such as providing shelter and home to other animals, they collect bacteria, and process carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.  Thse microbe partners play key roles that contribute to host health and survival of the sponge, including energy provision to the host, waste removal, amino acid and secondary metabolite production and chemical defence.

-  A healthy reef sponge (left) versus a necrotic one (right) in the lab conditions. Credit: Holly Bennett

The symbiosis between the reef sponge and its microbes is weak to warm oceans, and may not be stronge to the high temperatures that are predicted to become averages by the end of the century.

Photo by David Gúmera

Reference (Open Access): Botté et al.2023 Future ocean conditions induce necrosis, microbial dysbiosis and nutrient cycling imbalance in the reef sponge Stylissa flabelliformis. ISME COMMUN.

#reef sponge #Stylissa flabelliformis #climate change #science #biology #sciblr #scienceblr #bioblr #biologyblr #marine biology #marine science #ocean acidification

[appalachianfuturism]

“So I was pleasantly surprised when I met the leaders of Running Tide earlier this month. Far from having a hippie-dippie-ish enthusiasm about kelp, they spoke like engineers, aware of the immense scale of carbon removal that stands before them. While much of Running Tide's science remains unvetted, the researchers seem to be thinking about all the right problems in all the right ways—approaching carbon removal as an organization-level problem rather than a one-off process.

At its core, carbon removal is “a mass-transfer problem,” Marty Odlin, Running Tide’s CEO, told me. The key issue is how to move the hundreds of gigatons of carbon emitted by fossil fuels from the “fast cycle,” where carbon flits from fossil fuels to the air to plant matter, back to the “slow cycle,” where they remain locked away in geological storage for millennia. “How do you move that?” Odlin said. “What’s the most efficient way possible to accomplish that mass transfer?” The question is really, really important. The United Nations recently said that carbon removal is “essential” to remedying climate change, but so far, we don’t have the technology to do it cheaply and at scale.

Odlin, who comes from a Maine fishing family and went to college for robotics, founded Running Tide in 2017 on the theory that the ocean, which covers two-thirds of the planet’s surface, would be essential to carbon removal. At least for now, the key aspect of Running Tide’s system is its buoys. Each buoy is made of reclaimed waste wood, limestone, and kelp seedlings, materials that are meant to address the climate problem in some way: The wood represents forest carbon that would otherwise be thrown out or incinerated, the limestone helps reverse ocean acidification, and, most important, the kelp grows ultrafast, absorbing carbon from the land and sea. Eventually, the buoy is meant to break down, with the limestone dissolving and the wood and kelp drifting to the bottom of the seafloor…”

#climate change #climate crisis #carbon removal #solarpunk #carbon sequestration #ocean warming #kelp #ocean acidification #ocean ecology #carbon cycle

[reasonsforhope]

“Kelp is a large, fast-growing brown seaweed that sequesters carbon and harmful pollutants. It’s also full of nutrients and is used in foods, pharmaceuticals and fertilizers — making it a big business.

The global commercial seaweed market is valued at around $15 billion and is projected to reach $25 billion by 2028. In the United States, the kelp market is expected to quadruple by 2035, according to the Island Institute.

For the estimated 800 residents of the Shinnecock Reservation, where [Tela] Troge said some families live on just $6,000 a year, kelp farming could be an economic lifeline. On one side of Shinnecock Hills, “you have billionaire’s row where some of the wealthiest people in America have homes,” Troge said. “Then, on the other side, you have Shinnecock territory, where 60 percent of us are living in complete poverty.”

In 2019, Troge, an attorney who has represented the Shinnecock Nation in federal land rights cases, was looking for a way to create jobs and clean up Shinnecock Bay. That’s when GreenWave, a nonprofit that promotes regenerative ocean farming, approached the community about starting a kelp hatchery.

Troge and five other women from her community formed the Shinnecock Kelp Farm, the first Indigenous-run farm of its kind on the East Coast...

Kelp forests promote biodiversity, lessen ocean acidification and remove dissolved carbon dioxide from the water. One meta-analysis by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that, on average, these farms remove 575 pounds of nitrogen per acre... Seaweed aquaculture could absorb nearly 240 million tons by 2050, equal to the annual emissions from more than 50 million fossil fuel–powered cars, according to a 2021 study published in Nature...

The farm is already cleaning up the area, Hopson Begun said; since operations began she said the water appears clearer and more birds fly overhead.” -via Nexus Media News, 11/15/22

#shinnecock #long island #new york #kelp #ecosystem #nitrogen #regenerative farming #indigenous #indigenous peoples #job creation #green jobs #ocean #ocean acidification #economic liberation #good news #hope

[possesseddog]

i spent way too long on this meme that none of my mutuals will get and i just realized i spelled acidification wrong. i am not changing it.

#i couldn't stop thinking abt it during class today #but it was either think about making the class content into memes or cry over the state of our oceans #possessed memes #ocean acidification #marine biology #biology #coccolithophores #idk if thats an active tag but you know the discourse would go crazy

[olowan-waphiya]

did you see the recent research out of Edinburgh about 90% of the plankton in the atlantic being dead? (it's on grubloved's blog if you havent read it but no pressure to go looking for it). Paraphrasing: much worse than we thought, and while humans could adapt socially and technologically to climate and extreme weather, mass marine death is a near-certain death sentence. Wondering if you've seen anything to the contrary? I feel like every time I'm like "whew I can do this locally and advocate for this and look at this new landmark goal reached" i learn something like this and it makes me feel like launching myself into the sun

Okay so...I've read the article and its very scary sounding. ---And here is the actual study. I would want more confirmation from other scientific teams, as its always good to have more data. Has anyone replicated their findings? What about the other oceans? Also, there are many, many different species of plankton--I would be interested if there were certain ones that seemed to show more resilience than others.

There is a ton of research being done around the ocean and the impacts climate change is having. This also came out recently- its a 'global horizon scan of issues impacting marine and coastal biodiversity conservation'.

All things are connected. So many people care about the oceans and are working on these problems. You can be one of them. Nature is adaptive and capable of so many incredible things. Things move slowly. But a little bit of change goes a long way. We've seen it happen--when we act, we can do incredible things--like bring species back from the brink of extinction, like patch up ozone holes, like revitalize entire ecosystems.

It's very, very easy to despair and give up hope because there is so much bad news and awful things happening. The fact is that the climate crisis has been here and we're still struggling to respond because of the grip capitalism has on our society. I worry all the time for the future. We should be afraid of this and we should keep searching for new information and we need to keep changing. Be upset about it and share it with more people.

But, there is no point without hope. We have no other options but to do better. For the oceans, its inhabitants and ourselves.

--

#climate crisis #ocean acidification #ocean #plastic pollution #water pollution #plankton #atlantic ocean #asks #marine conservation #ocean preservation and conservation

[larimar]

davidsuzukifdn

Just one more reason to switch to 100% renewables. We're on the brink of a massive win for renewables in Canada 

#global warming from fossil fuels #poor governance #deforestation #air polution #melting ice cap and sea level rise #ocean acidification #cobalt mining #mining

[zenaidamacrouras1]

Yesterday my kids went to Paleo camp (? It was an option and I needed childcare) and learned about the impacts of the asteroid hitting and I was talking about how the subsequent ocean acidification caused the base level of life in the ocean (foraminifera) to all die and that created a chain reaction of mass ocean death.

And my son said "But an asteroid isn't going to hit our planet again right?" (Great fear)

And daughter said "no because scientists watch for asteroids and are learning how to push them away with rockets"

And I said, "yeah an asteroid isn't a problem but we still might have that chain reaction of near complete ocean death because of ocean acidification due to global warming because the lower critters on the ocean food chain have carbon shells which dissolve in acid like if you put an egg in vinegar. That's probably going to happen in your lifetime. I don't know why scientists are worried about asteroids."

And then they blinked at me in horror, and then my son asked where tar pits come from and if he needs to worry about getting stuck in one.

#Stellar parenting 101 #What am I supposed to say? #Why aren't we doing more about global warming #I have a hard time #Ocean acidification #Is one of my biggest fears #Why yes I did write about this in a fanfiction

[caterpillarinacave]

It genuinely baffles me how a person can “not believe” in climate change.

#It’s just… science? #Fact? #off topic #How are we as a society glossing over ocean ACIDIFICATION #climate change #global warmjng #environmetalists #ocean acidification #Science

[indizombie]

More than half of the total amount of oxygen in our atmosphere is created by creatures in the ocean. At the same time, oceans store 50 times more carbon dioxide than what's currently found in our atmosphere. The warmer the ocean gets, the less CO2 it can store. It's a vicious cycle: the warmer it gets, the less our oceans can protect the planet from even more extreme weather events. If temperatures keep increasing at their current speed, scientists believe many shellfish such as mussels and snails will not survive. That's due to ocean acidification: if the CO2 content in the seawater increases, the PH level in the water changes. The increasing acidity hampers the creation of the chalky shells of the animals. This throws entire biospheres off-balance, and could threaten entire economic sectors, such as the breeding of oysters and mussels. The rising temperatures in the atmosphere triggered by the burning of coal, oil and gas also change ocean currents as the water gets warmer. This can already mean death for many creatures, such as corals. Corals live in symbiosis with colorful algae which help feed them. The warming of the water can lead to algae death, which means more stress for corals, leading to many losing their color, which is also known as coral bleaching.

Tim Schauenberg, ‘How to save our high seas from overfishing, pollution’, BBC

#BBC #Tim Schauenberg #oxygen #high seas #ocean creatures #carbon dioxide #global warming #extreme weather events #ocean acidification #fossil fuel burning #coral bleaching

[kp777]

#arctic ocean #ocean acidification #climate change

[ianmiller42]

Ocean Warming Hits New High

A recent paper (Cheng et al. Adv. Atmos.Sci., 2024) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00376-024-3378-5  produced an alarming piece of information: in 2023 the ocean heat content of the upper 2000 metres of the Earth’s ocean was 15 + 10 ZJ greater than the same in 2022. What that means is the Earth’s oceans absorbed 1.5 times 10^22 Joules more in one year. That is real global warming. The…

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#Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation #ocean acidification #ocean warming #tipping points

[teddyyyoriginalll]

Ocean Acidification

Ocean Acidification threatens the whole foundation of the ocean food chain. Shells of marine life gradually dissolve away, leaving those animals spending more energy on building shells than on finding food, which makes it harder for them to grow and survive and the predators that eat them will struggle to survive as well.

Ocean Acidification threatens coral reefs due to climate change. An increase in greenhouse gasses causes climate change and ocean acidification, and a change in the climate causes a change in the ocean. When the ocean is warmed, sea levels rise and storm patterns change which smothers the coral reef and destroys its structure. Eventually, changes in precipitation will increase freshwater, sediment, and land-based pollutants like fertilizer and other nutrients, to runoff into the ocean and increase algal bloom and murky up the water, which reduces the amount of light able to pass though. Ocean currents altar, and the changes in connectivity and temperature cause a lack of food. Finally, pH levels will reduce and growth and structural integrity will decrease.

Ocean Acidification affects the temperature of the ocean by warming it. Zooxanthellae are compounds made by coral polyps, creatures making up coral that receive shelter. They turn sunlight into energy, which they provide mostly to polyps. Coral and zooxanthellae are temperature specific, and if it gets too warm zooxanthellae cannot convert sunlight to energy efficiently, leaving extra energy which becomes toxic chemicals. Those toxic chemicals remove zooxanthellae. When they are all gone the coral turns white, coral bleaching. If these zooxanthellae are missing for too long the coral structure will become a wasteland.

One way we can decrease ocean acidification is by shrinking carbon footprint. This means reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses we produce. Some ways we can do this is by driving less, burning less fuels that we pollute our atmosphere with. We can also use energy efficient appliances and reserve water and trees.

Another way we can reduce pollution is reusing and recycling. Factories run to produce more and more plastics and other nonbiodegradable things. While our factories run they release greenhouse gasses and smoke. The things we produce get thrown into wastelands rather than be used again, and this pollution harms a variety of life. We can also reduce harmful chemicals we use, like chemicals we spray outside to kill bugs and pests. People also consume lots of non sustainable animals, which leads to an endangerment of species, and we already have a large enough food waste rate. We should consume animals that we have more of that can sustain reproduction and life well.

Humans are constantly burning fossil fuels when simply participating in daily activities. Driving, throwing away trash, killing/consuming animals, using paper and water, working in an industrial setting, tending to farms and livestock, use of electricity and nonrenewable energy, all cause pollution. The pollution caused leads to climate change by the carbon dioxide emission, which is the source of ocean acidification. Climate change warms the ocean and takes up less carbon, and our marine life consumes these carbonate ion molecules. But when carbonate ions react with water it releases hydrogen ions, which makes the ocean more acidic and slowly dissolves life.

just a lil smth for school :) AWARENESS!!!

#ocean acidification #greenhouse gas emissions #awareness post #save our planet #pollution #save the ocean #save earth #coral bleaching #fossil fuels #toxic chemicals #zoox anthellae #polyps #marine life #climate change #global warming #coral reef #ocean currents #sea #reduce reuse recycle #recycle #reuse #reducing

[scientificinquirer-blog]

Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda is warmer and more acidic than ever, 40 years of observation show

Decade-long ocean warming which impacts ocean circulation, a decrease in oxygen levels that contributes to changes in salinification and nutrient supply, and ocean acidification are just some of the challenges the world’s oceans are facing. In 1988, a comprehensive sustained ocean time-series of observations, called the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS), began at a site about 80 km…

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#environment #North America #ocean acidification #pollution

[olowan-waphiya]

(Ocean anon) yeah I’m hoping that the Atlantic is worse than the others currently (ok that sounds hideous but hear me out). The Atlantic is shallow, historically the worst polluted, and air currents dump a lot of global pollution specifically there. So it’s low in volume and high in particulate, therefore high in concentration, and stuff that settles out to the bottom of deeper oceans gets eddied up by the currents and returned to the upper levels of the ocean there. So hopefully just because it’s bad in the Atlantic, doesn’t mean the other oceans are that bad yet. But idk :/ as you said there’s more to uncover still

Here is the abstract of the paper and I want to highlight certain parts:

Marine plants and animals should be thriving in ocean waters because of the current high concentrations of carbon dioxide and nutrients along with slightly elevated temperatures - but they are not. We have lost 50% of all marine life over the last 70 years; this decline is continuing today at a rate of 1% year on year. The GOES team has used its collective professional and academic experience to undertake analysis of peer- reviewed and published data to explore the reasons for this decline and its implications for climate and humanity. In our view, this loss of marine life is directly related to the presence of toxic chemicals and plastic which started to appear with the ‘chemical revolution’ in the 1950’s.

There is no doubt that tiny ocean planktonic plants and animals are key to regulating our climate, but this keystone of the planet’s largest ecosystem seems to be ignored as one of the tools to address climate change. Every second breath we take comes from marine photosynthesis, a process which also uses 60-90% of our carbon dioxide. Now that we have lost 50% of a key climate regulator, surely it is time to stop, take a fresh look at ocean chemistry and biodiversity and ask ourselves some fundamental questions: Why have we lost this level of marine life? Why is the decline continuing? What does this mean for our climate and humanity?

Of particular concern from a climate change perspective is the level of carbonic acid in the oceans. This carbonic acid is created when atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolves into the oceans. In the 1940’s, ocean pH was 8.2, but in 2020, pH had dropped to 8.04, indicating that the oceans are becoming more acidic. If there are not enough plants to use up carbon, the unused carbonic acid moves the pH downwards. Reports from respected institutes around the globe flag an acceleration of the ocean acidification process. This decline will result in the loss of more marine plants and animals, especially those that have carbonate shells and body structures (aragonite) based. These same reports forecast that in 25 years (by 2045), pH will drop to 7.95, and estimate that with this, 80% to 90% of all remaining marine life will be lost. The GOES team’s opinion is that this is a tipping point: a planetary boundary which must not be exceeded if humanity is to survive. No ecosystem can survive a 90% loss; the result is a trophic cascade collapse. We will lose all the corals, whales, seals, birds, fish and food supply for 2 billion people – an outcome worse than climate change.

Let’s be clear: If by some miracle the world achieves net zero by 2045, evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) BIOACID report [1] demonstrates that this reduction will not be enough to stop a drop in ocean pH to 7.95. If the level of marine life (both plant and animal) is reduced, then the oceans’ ability to lockout carbon into the abyss is depleted. It is clear to the GOES team that if we only pursue carbon mitigation strategies and don’t do more to regenerate plant and animal life in oceans, we will reach a tipping point: a planetary boundary from which there will be no return, because all life on Earth depends upon the largest ecosystem on the planet. Humanity will suffer terribly from global warming, but it must be understood that the oceans are already showing signs of instability today at pH 8.04, (the start of the tipping point) and in 25 years when the pH has dropped to pH 7.95 represents the end point, the point of no return.

—

Very scary stuff—my hands are shaking as I type this. But they’ve identified the problem. And highlighted a solution. I am confident there are no shortage of solutions. Human ingenuity and nature …We just have to act and that often means regulations and direct action.

#climate collapse #ocean acidification #ocean pollution #plankton #ecological collapse #ocean preservation and conservation