Ocean acidification?

[20vturbo]

Wasn't sure where to post this. But I really hope Dr. Shimek is incorrect as he is predicting the extinction of coral reefs as we know them in 30-70 years! Does anyone else know anything about this? I heard about it in a local aquarium gathering, and haven't had time to look into it too deeply yet! It is crazy to think of an ocean without the coral we have come to know and love.

http://www.projectdibs.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6539

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification

 

[justleesa]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

moved to the Marine Life and Ecosystems forum for ya

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[20vturbo]

holy cow this is a big forum!

thx!

 

[archman]

Ocean acidification is being heavily examined by many scientists. Unfortunately, like a lot of climate change issues, this is something that we'll have to take a "wait and see" outlook rather than tackle it in a significant manner. The elevated dissolved CO2 is already in the water, and it doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon.

Two real issues are:
1. Will elevated dissolved CO2 actually depress oceanic pH?
2. Does marine life have adaptation mechanisms to deal with reduced pH?

 

[Mantasscareme]

Well, there are some people who have a different view on this issue: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6763 . A while ago, I contacted the Dr. Ben McNeil referenced in the article via e-mail. At that point, he seemed to agree with the article that severity of future coral bleaching is a big :huh: and a big problem, so we can't really predict anything at this point.

Also noteworthy: Some photosynthetic marine protists also rely on calcification for growth, so ocean acidification could reduce productivity of open-ocean ecosystems as well as coral reefs.

Please note: I'm not a marine biologist, just an interested diver.

 

[mikerault]

The ocean contains many dissolved salts which act as buffering agents, salts of sodium, calcium, magnesium and many others not just NaCl unless the studies are done using exact match scenarios it is junk science.

Mike

 

[20vturbo]

thanks for the links and info