Acidification

The rate of change of ocean acidification is at a historic high and is 10 times faster than the last major acidification, 55 million years ago, according to a press release announcing the formation of the task force.

More and more carbon dioxide would dissolve in the sea and ocean acidification would continue to intensify, triggering even more damage to coral reefs and other marine ecosystems.

Nixon said he has heard anecdotally that some oyster farmers have been dumping pieces of shells on their oyster beds to raise the calcium content of the water and combat acidification.

The goal has been to one day plant corals grown from cryopreserved samples on reefs plagued by bleaching and acidification.

According to the research team, future work should explore how climate change interacts with other potential drivers of extinction, such as ocean acidification and anoxia (where seawater becomes depleted of oxygen).

The latest report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), showed record-breaking “greenhouse gas levels, surface temperatures, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, Antarctic sea ice cover and glacier retreat” in 2023.

In 2016, the state passed a bill commissioning scientific research on the ability of kelp and seagrasses to reduce ocean acidification locally, which has led to different reports.

Other global changes—a warming climate, a rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and an increase in ocean acidification—also occurred around the end of the Permian period and the beginning of the Triassic and likely contributed.

The greatest mass extinction of all time, the Permian-Triassic mass extinction 250 million years ago, killed 95 percent of life, and the very few survivors faced a turbulent world, repeatedly hit by ice ages, rapid warming and ocean acidification cycles.

The organisms that live in the canopy or could move into it are most likely to benefit from kelp’s local acidification relief, they write.

WMO added that 2019 and the past decade also were characterized by retreating ice, record sea levels, increasing ocean heat and acidification, and extreme weather, all of which have “major impacts” on human health and the natural environment.

Climate change and ocean acidification, which slowly erodes reefs, have exacerbated the problem.

Ocean acidification has become a field of research only in recent decades, so information has been limited to what scientists have since started monitoring and discovering.

These include sustainable fisheries; serious attention to illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing; significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions; and smart strategies to adapt to climate change and ocean acidification.

The species show a unique resilience to climate change threats like rising ocean temperatures and acidification.

Years of research into ocean health has focused on rising water temperatures and the effects of acidification on marine life.

A poorer sense of smell is just one of many negative effects of oceanic acidification — which is sometimes called ‘climate change evil’s twin’.

Stony Brook University’s Larry Swanson, Malcolm Bowman and Carl Safina have been chosen to be part of the new state Ocean Acidification Task Force.

The Sitka Tribe’s ocean acidification research efforts began one year ago, with installation of a Burke-o-Lator, an instrument invented by Oregon State professor Burke Hales, another partner in the project.

Wahle and others said the jury is still out on whether the increasing acidification of the ocean is one of those factors.