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Pacific Ocean under Acid

Scientists from Washington, British Columbia, Oregon and California just dropped alarming news about the devastated ecology and the chemistry of the Pacific Ocean. The global carbon dioxide is causing this massive change, highlighting that the ocean acidification is increasing, due to the low levels of oxygen in the water.

These west coast panel – made out of 20 ocean scientists – suggested that their governors along with their help should develop some regional strategies to at least reduce their carbon dioxide levels – starting from below is the beginning.

Scientists just dropped alarming news about the devastated ecology and the chemistry of the Pacific Ocean. Photo credit: Huffington Post

Francis Chan who is an Oregon State University marine ecologist and co-chair of this panel stated that there is a negative attitude because there is not much to do about it locally speaking, but we know that isn’t true at all and also said there are a lot of potential solutions that might be – with a little local support – possible and maybe avoid an international ocean acidification.

The west coast it’s the first one being affected by this because how the Pacific Ocean circulates, and according to NNOA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory – located in Seattle – along with Richard Feely, the west coast is exposed to unusual high volumes of seawater at alarming high acidity levels.

Some ideas include exploring the use of seagrass to remove dioxide from water – seagrass underwater releases oxygen and could help low the acidity levels of water – to reduce the CO2 levels. Another one is that the coastal up swelling might bring nutrients along with low-oxygen and high-CO2 water from the depths, which could cause a phytoplankton blooming causing it to die and sink, leading to the production of more CO2 lowering oxygen levels.

Past, current and future modeling of ocean surface pH along the California Current System for 1750, 2005 and 2050. Credit: West Coast Governors Alliance on Ocean Health

Acid Ocean: Don’t even once

We, humans, are pumping out more CO2 into the atmosphere, and the ocean absorbs this gas that leads to the acidification of the water. Another phenomenon happening due the consequence of the seawater acidification is the Hypoxia, which is nothing but the result of burning fossil fuels along with the agricultural runoff and wasted water treatments flowing.

This situation started out about 15 years ago in Oregon, where an extended Hypoxia leads to the massive dying of many marine animals and the oyster industry was also affected by the high death rates on juvenile oysters because of this acidified water – What do we say to acid? Not today.

Source: University of Washington  

Categories: Science
Adam Kreller:
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