Ocean Acidification Assignment

Invasive species in any given environment have the potential to mess up with the entire food web or life cycle in a given area. Because invasive species are foreign and not natural a change in the norm can result in a species being totally killed off, or growing uncontrollably. For example, a freshwater mussel know as the zebra mussel was introduced by ships coming back from Europe and now are widespread in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River. This leads to clogging irrigation pipes and the reduce food availability for larval fish. Another example, would be lionfish.

Background: In Ischia Island the water around the island has been acidified for millions of years because of Mt. Vesuvius. This dormant volcano is melting chalk in the sea floor, which releases carbon dioxide into the water acidifying it. This acidification is devastating the life around the island and is still being acidified by the continuous release of CO2. We can use this as an example of what our world might look like if we continue to release carbon dioxide emissions through things such as burning fossil fuels and reducing the carbon banks such by things like deforestation.

Castello Argonese, a tiny island in the Tyrrhenian Sea gives us an enlightening glimpse of Earth in 2100. Chapter six of the book The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, is solely devoted to her experience in these waters where the vents on the sea floor bubbled up almost 100% carbon dioxide. She talks about the consequences of constantly burning fossil fuels to add about 365 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere and how it could lead to our own demise. The thing about carbon dioxide is that the moment it interacts with water, it becomes an acid which can be deadly to the animals living in these oceans obviously, but also to organisms above sea which includes humans. Elizabeth Kolbert wants us to understand that our actions have tragic consequences and we too will be part of that tragedy if we don’t stop now.

Ocean acidification is killing off the oyster population, which is also affecting the jobs in Washington. Initially, ocean acidification is when acidic gases are emitted into the air and absorbed into the ocean. According to the video Ocean Acidification by NOAA, ¼ of all the carbon dioxide release into the air is absorbed into the oceans. Some major contributors to carbon emissions are automobile gas and factory emissions. This is a problem in the Pacific Northwest because acid sinks to the bottom, but Pacific winds bring acidic water up from the bottom near the shore by the shellfish.

As oceans are warming it is possible to see less of an effect than previously recorded. An alternate objective of this experiment is to observe larvae from A. Planci in higher pH and warmer environments to see if the species will be eliminated from the environment before experimenting with coral restoration. It is possible that the rate of environmental changes cannot keep up with Darwinian evolution concepts which then asks the question of what the environment will look like if this species is eradicated? Possible problems of this experiment is unbalancing the environment. If collection of this species happens to help protect the coral reefs we do not have any idea of what will

The cause of the increasing of sea level is the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere (Pittock 22) caused by human activities, such

Introduction In order for a coral reef to be productive and healthy, the water quality in the ocean should be maintained. Water quality not only affects coral reefs, but the other organisms that live on it and are involved with the natural food chain. Some of the factors that can influence water quality are nutrients, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, light, and chlorophyll present. Water is essential to every living organism because it helps with respiration, maintaining body temperature, digestion and provides energy.

Sarah Freeman’s article in The Ethicalist explains the negative effects humans have on the ocean. These negative effects include plastic pollution, global warming, and worst of all, overfishing. Overfishing occurs when a fish species is wild caught faster than it can reproduce. This leads to fewer fish in the ocean, meaning less marine biodiversity (Freeman). After Freeman spends most of her article explaining how the oceans are suffering, she then starts talking about what can be done to prevent a baren sea.

Around 150 years ago, humans started releasing fossil fuels into the atmosphere during the industrial revolution. The ocean takes up a quarter of the gas that surrounds earth by absorbing the CO2 we put in our atmosphere. Scientist thought the ocean was a great resource for getting rid of these CO2 gases in the atmosphere; however, they didn’t know how much these gases where destroying our great ocean. NOVA’s documentary presents, Lethal Seas, a documentary of the destruction of our vast ocean, concentrating on the American northwest coast, Papua New Guinea among the volcanic islands of Milne Bay, and Aurora Australis. The documentary dresses the issue of rising acidity levels in the ocean and its effects.

Harmful fishing methods are unnecessarily killing turtles, dolphins, and destroying critical habitats. Global warming is increasing the temperature of the ocean water, reducing the generation of the base of the food web, plankton. The reducing of the plankton generation is causing major marine ecosystem change. Pollution is also a significant environmental issue HAL is facing. More oil reaches the ocean each year, a massive amount of oil has been accidently spilled from ships, which in turn is destroying animal and aquatic plant life.

About 71 percent of our planet Earth is covered by water, and the majority comes from the oceans (about 96.5 percent of all Earth’s water). It remains as the most expansive, diverse, and mysterious places on planet Earth. But it is being threatened by the pollution by people and nature itself. By polluting the habitat of marine organism will indirectly affect the ecosystem of the marine life. Marine life is dying and as the result the oceanic ecosystem is threatened.

In the worst case scenario these animals will become extinct in the future. Carbon dioxide is well known as CO2. The level of carbon dioxide in the ocean has increased over the past years. The ocean dissolves the emissions of humans and the combustion of fossil fuel. Once being dissolved, the carbon dioxide creates

Hence, overfishing threatens coastal nations down to the local level, devastating communities whose dominant sources of labor and revenue hinges on healthy, plentiful stocks of fish. Also, marine life imbalance may affect the targeted fishing of top predators such as billfish, sharks and tuna that eventually disturbs marine communities. In fact, it is causing increased abundance of smaller marine animals at the bottom of the food chain. This in turn has impacts on the rest of the marine ecosystem, such as the increased growth of algae and threats to coral reef health.

Ever since the industrial revolution commenced, around one third of the carbon dioxide released by human interference has been absorbed by the ocean, which is one of the reasons of the drastic change in climate as well. Without the ocean absorbing carbon dioxide, the carbon dioxide n the atmosphere would be drastically higher, with possibly increasing the levels of climate change. The point of the research is to see how will the pH affect the organisms in the marine ecosystem and does carbonation affect an organism’s mass and form. Many organisms that are part of the marine food chain are going to be affected by ocean acidification due the levels of acidity deteriorating the calcium carbonate within the animal. It turns out

The ocean is nowadays undergoing numerous environmental issues that further lead to marine pollution. Marine pollution is a very serious environmental issue that most of the countries of the world encounter. Aquatic littering is considered as one of the major causes of marine environment. The misleading use of the marine environment is extremely impacting the marine life and ecosystems. Moreover, the total amount of toxins and debris discharged by human beings is incredibly increasing in today 's world.