Ocean Acidification Is Affecting Marine Life
Carbon dioxide has been increasing rapidly over the years and our oceans have been absorbing one third of the emissions overall. Oceans are said to be the largest carbon sinks in the world but the more carbon dioxide they absorb the more acidic they are becoming (2). This change in our oceans acidity will affect our planet 's global climate change and also our marine life overall.
Ocean acidification is the process of our ocean taking in carbon dioxide emissions from our atmosphere and turning it into carbonic acid which leads to a lower PH level meaning higher acidity for our oceans (1)(2). Over the past 300 million years our oceans acidity has been at 8.2 units of acidity and it has gone down to 8.1units (4). I know that doesn 't
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Ocean acidification is affecting marine life immensely. When our oceans keep acidifying it causes carbonate ions to be less plentiful and these ions are an important part for marine life such as oysters, clams, sea urchins, and corals to get there structures built and maintained such as their shells and coral skeletons(1). Ocean acidification can also affect some fish 's ability to detect predators putting them at a greater risk and causing the entire food web to be in danger(1).
The organisms that are having the most trouble adapting to rising acidity is corals because they produce calcium carbonate to make their rocky outer layer that forms coral reefs(2). Coral reefs are the beautiful ecosystems that are booming with life but since the acidity has been rising and so has the overall temperature of the ocean the coral has been bleaching and has not been able to grow well or even stay alive(2). The biggest coral reef in the world which is the Great Barrier Reef has been bleaching quickly and now only seven percent of the reef is left unaffected by ocean acidification and climate change(3). Many scientists believe that corals could become fully extinct by the end of the century if we don’t stop or reduce our carbon dioxide and fossil fuel
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