Earthsky Interviews
Richard Feely says atmospheric CO2 is changing ocean chemistry
01-04-2010 - Water
Richard Feely, of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, said that Earth’s oceans are absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making oceans more acidic. This could pose a threat to ocean life.
Richard Feely: Particularly our shellfish – lobster, crab, clams and oysters -even the basis of the food chain – the plants and green zooplankton that are food for our fish produce calcium carbonate skeletons and shells.
Feely said that acidity is weakening these shells and skeletons, and could eventually prevent some marine creatures from growing them at all.
Richard Feely: The skeletons provide the basis of the coral reef ecosystem, and throughout the world our fisheries resources represent about 20% of the protein resources for about a third of the population of the world. And so, as we see these changes taking place, we’re concerned that many of our fisheries resources would be impacted.
Feely emphasized the global consequences of ocean acidification.
Richard Feely: These problems are serious, but they can be avoided as long as we make a concerted effort to reduce CO2 emissions. We need to do that within the next couple of decades.
Our thanks to:
Richard Feely
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Seattle, WA
Photo Credit: Paulo Brandao
Sadly the mere reduction of new emissions does nothing about the lethal 1000 gigatonnes of CO2, yesterdays CO2, that is a carbon bomb already airborne and destined to continue to harm the oceans for centuries to come. Only the replenishment and restoration of the oceans back to levels of productivity of 30+ years ago stands a chance of saving the oceans from the carbon bomb. In the past 30 years the decline of ocean plant life has been far more extensive than loss of plant life in rainforests and other terrestrial environs. That loss of plant life, 10% in the Southern Ocean, 17% in the North Atlantic, 26% in the North Pacific, and 50% in pafts of the tropical oceans means 4-5 billion tonnes of CO2, fully half the emission overload, is no longer being fixed into ocean plant life. Instead it becomes ocean acidification. By replenishing the natural mineral dust our high and rising CO2 has denied the oceans, ocean pastures can be restored and once again convert deadly CO2 into ocean life instead of ocean death. 20 years and a quarter of a billion in pubilc and pivate research has shown restoring the SEAS is viable, affordable, and able to be immediately implemented. Stop talking the planet to death and do something to restore it. Read more at Planktos-Science.
Not to worry. CO2 is a lagging indicator. It is released from the oceans when they warm. Now that we are cooling again, the problem will solve itself. The real problem, the destruction of our economies in the name of saving the earth will likely starve millions. But, I guess that is OK. People are a parasite anyhow.
I must make one other comment: Our oceans, warming, are RELEASING, not absorbing CO2. Please check your facts. Also, it must be remembered that water is a very strong buffer. If the miniscule amount of CO2 in the air (358 ppm, that is a concentration of 0.0358 %) is right, then the water will absorb some, but not all of it ( given since plants are still alive up here in the atmoshpere), and the mass of water is greater than that of the atmoshere, there ain’t much CO2 in the water to begin with. The rise in pH will be negligible at best. Also, the photosynthetic plants in the oceans need the CO2 to live as well. Increased CO2 in the water will result in increase aquatic plant growth which will remove the CO2 from the water, fixing the carbon and releasing the oxygen. Yet another of nature’s feedback loops.
Bad science, poor conclusions. If the writer is not ignorant of the facts, what is his agenda?
NOAA has a good science-based introduction on what ocean acidification is at this link:
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/OA/background.html
Bottom line is that scientists estimate that roughly 1/3 of the carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels ends up in the oceans. Several studies show that increasingly acidic water from anthropogenic CO2 dissolves coral reefs. Here’s one from 2008 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.pnas.org/content/105/30/10450.full?sid=6ab5d4af-33c3-40e3-80a2-9d7c619b73c2
It is confirmed by scientists that as sea surface temperatures rise in a warming world, some of the CO2 stored in Earth’s oceans will be released. J.R. Toggweiler has reported his findings in the journal Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7164/full/nature06227.html.
Again, CO2 is an essential chemical compound for life, but just about anything in excess can be harmful.
Hello? Is there anyone out there paying attention to this rediculous argument?
Let’s see if I get this story right, – 75% of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans, right? – and CO2 as well as O2 can be absorbed by the water’s surface; – and CO2 levels in the atmosphere have been rising ever since the industrial revolution; – and CO2 forms Carbonic Acid when dissoved in water (sort of like carbonated soda); – and much of the ocean’s sealife depends on calcium carbonate (lime) for its shells and corals and anything with a hard surface… – and prior to the current era, the globe has existed for millions and millions of years at some state of equillibrium, barring “normal/natural” fluctuations such as catastrophic volcanos that released tons & tons of CO2 at different time periods.
Then the answer is up to you and me, isn’t it?
Do you want to listen to a bunch of scientists who spend their careers trying to learn all the can about a particular subject, with little more to gain from it but a few research grants and their names in a bunch of obscure papers that few-if-anyone will ever read…
(and here’s the punchline:)
Or some stupid fool who buys in to the rhetoric that there should be no concern over the destruction of the atmosphere, and we should all go back to watching TV?
This is just some ignorant Illinois farmer writing, but I think we should listen to the scientists and quit bashing anyone who raises concerns over the environment.
Sincerely,
Will From IL
Dr. Feely is well respected for his accomplishments and contributions to marine sciences, most notably in the development of measurement methodologies, study of water borne toxins, marine geothermal vents (black smokers), and a host of respected studies in measuring seawater chemical compositions. I hold high respect for his work.
That said, I believe it bears pointing out that his focus is primarily compositional measurements and distribution with relatively little reference to the biological processes in his work. There are several hundred recent peer reviewed abstracts that focus on the affects of pH and CO2 changes on a broad range of marine biology that seek to quantify exactly how pH and CO2 affect the biological processes. The general conclusion of these studies is that most corals, planktons, crustaceans, and plant life is largely unaffected by the small changes proposed by Dr. Feely. I don’t think Dr. Feely’s core analysis of his measurements is flawed but his expounding beyond his scope of work on how the marine biology “may” be grossly affected is mostly conjecture and not as well supported in current marine biology literature.