18.1.1. CO2 effect on ocean acidification

Corolmfi

Less plankton production Acidrtkation

less productive fisheries

The uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide is occurring at a rate exceeding the natural buffering capacity of the ocean.

The pH of the ocean surface waters has decreased by about 0.1 pH unit (i.e. 26% increase in ocean hydrogen ion concentration) since the beginning of the industrial revolution. The ocean currently has a pH around 8.0 and is therefore ‘basic’ and it is nearly impossible, chemically, for all of it to actually become a pH less than 7.0. Why do we therefore refer to ‘ocean acidification’?

That is because acidification is the direction of travel, the trend, regardless of the starting point. Acidification

refers to lowering pH from any starting point to any end point on the pH scale.