Play button

Monitoring Ocean Acidification Takes A Village (Or Many!)

What We Can't Sea

Ocean acidification is a huge problem, and it's going to take a village (or many!) to monitor it. This episode shows how we can all work together to help keep our oceans healthy.

As seawater absorbs CO2 (because yep, that’s a thing), it also creates carbonic acid. A certain amount of hydrogen ions busting out from that carbonic acid can be buffered, leaving ocean pH relatively unaltered. But here in the 21st century, we’ve overshot the CO2 limit and the result is an acidifying ocean. That’s bad news, both for marine ecosystems and human communities. We don’t know the full extent of ocean acidification impacts, but we do know that more acidic ocean water is tough on corals, bivalves, echinoderms, and fish— even zooplankton struggle to survive in increasingly acidic waters. The negative effect of acidification on marine organisms ripples out to humans by disrupting seafood, tourism destinations, and coastal protection.

Monitoring Ocean Acidification Takes A Village (Or Many!)

Monitoring Ocean Acidification Takes A Village (Or Many!)

0.00

5.00