OCEAN ACIDIFICATION AND THE WAYS TO REDUCE IT
Ocean acidification is a global pressure that have taken the attention of various countries around the world. The Sustainable Development Goals Report (2020) from United Nations predicted that by the end of this century, a 100–150 percent surge in ocean acidity will be expected, damaging half of all marine life in the world. Ocean acidification can be defined as the decrease in the PH of the ocean over a prolonged period of time, fostered primarily by the uptake of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2021). Siegenthaler (2013) stated that the ocean has soaked up roughly one third of anthropogenically emitted CO2 since the industrial revolutions, when these CO2 emissions from the atmosphere of the earth combines with the water from the oceans, a weak acid denoted as Carbonic acid (H2CO3) will be formed, increasing the acidity of the ocean. As global CO2 emissions continues to grow, more CO2 will be continuously absorbed by the surface of the ocean in the upcoming years and decades (Hofman & Bischof, 2014). The acidity of the ocean can be represented by the drop in the PH value. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also known as NOAA (2020) stated that the pH of surface ocean waters has plunged by 0.1 pH units during this year. This value may not seem like much, however since the PH scale is logarithmic, this value represents approximately a 30 percent increase in the acidity of the ocean. This problem demands to be seen as an increased tension on marine living resources, which are already under great biological and physicochemical stress due to increased ocean warming. There are various impacts of the ocean acidification and ways to mitigate this phenomenon.
One of the biggest impacts of ocean acidification is on the marine calcifying organisms. The changes in the ocean chemistry are recognized to have a negative impact on marine calcifying organisms (Hofman & Bischof, 2014) causing these new-born organisms to experience difficulties on surviving in the ecosystem. A calcifying organism is a plant or animal that utilize calcium carbonate for their structure and protection. These organisms combine two different minerals in the water that is calcium and carbonate to form hard shells and skeletons (EPA, 2016). Examples of these organism includes clams, oysters, corals, starfish, mussels and countless more. NOAA stated that the surge of ocean acidification causes accessible carbonate ions (CO32-) in the ocean will bond with excess hydrogen, causing less carbonate ions available for calcifying organisms to build and maintain their shells. These calcifying organisms plays a crucial role in the ecosystem of the ocean. Nelson (2009) stated that the calcifying organisms is ecologically important in the marine ecosystem as they contribute to habitat formation, carbon cycling, sediment production and coral reef accretion. Thor and Dupont (2018) claimed that both deep water coral reefs and shallow water tropical reefs is the foundation of marine ecosystem flourishing large biodiversity. Thus, it can be observed that the reduction in these reefs will directly cause the main habitat for the marine ecosystem to be tempered. Without the main habitat for the marine life, all species of the marine ecosystem will be threatened, and the food chain will be disrupted. Furthermore, the entire planktonic communities may also shift under future ocean acidification (Niehoff et al., 2013). Planktons are the bottom most of the food-web and such changes will stir the marine ecosystem including fish and mammals in a fundamental way.
Other than that, ocean acidification also impacts commercial industries (NOAA, 2020). The ocean acidification will affect ourselves as humans through socio-economic connections, mainly with reduced harvests of commercially important species (Cooley & Doney, 2009). This shows that the economy was also affected by this issue. Commercial industries such as oyster farms, mussels, shellfish fishery, aquaculture and more have significantly reduced harvest and will be expecting to increase in the future due to ocean acidification. A study conducted by Lee (2016) claimed that mitigation and adaptation efforts must be prepared for mollusc-intensive shellfish producers at the regional scale because these groups are the most vulnerable to ocean acidification. Ocean acidification causes new-born of these species to have the impediment to survive as they cannot build and maintain a strong shell or skeleton from the minerals. Freely et al. (2008) claimed that the dying off of new-born oysters from ocean acidification causes a reduction of production levels by 80 percent in the United States alone and disrupted the West Coast’s $110 million oyster industry. Meanwhile, United Kingdom suffers a loss of £1.5 to 9.6 Million. Narita et al. (2012) predicted that the global operating assets will experience a loss over USD 1000 billion for each year by the year 2100. This large loss indicates that the ocean acidification will continue to greatly affect the economy if the conditions of this issue persist. (Hofman & Bischof, 2014) stated that this problem is much more important in the developing countries where the population still heavily relies on reef fisheries and shellfish collecting. Thus, it is important to address this issue as quickly as possible to prevent more losses on global economy.
One of the solutions that can be done to mitigate ocean acidification is the establishment of monitoring networks. Monitoring network is a series of monitoring made by various governments or societies where the data obtained was shared and can be openly accessed by the community. Bijima, Brander & Barange (2009) claimed that is essential to perform continuous observations through national time-series stations, measurements from volunteer observing ships and research cruises at a worldwide scale and in specific locations. Open seawater chemistry and coastal areas requires expanded time studies to support the ocean acidification monitoring’s progress and the studies should be placed in context with all the historical data (Cooley & Doney, 2009). To create a large-scale monitoring networks, it is immensely recommended that all European marine sites serve as oceanic carbon system data providers which can provide monitoring coverage from Baltic, Mediterranean and North Seas up until the North-East Atlantic and northern North Atlantic Ocean areas (Bijima, Brander & Barange, 2009). This measure can enable us to monitor a large sum of the ocean part globally. Furthermore, the method in which the monitoring of ocean acidification was made can be better improved to increase efficiency, precision, and accuracy. Existing monitoring activities should be always maintained and new sampling or collecting devices and new sensors must be developed. One of the breakthroughs in the effort to monitor ocean acidification is the production of Ocean Acidification Product Suite (OAPS). OAPS is a device that offers modelling of environmental datasets and synthesis of satellite that can produce a comprehensive estimate of sea surface carbonate chemistry that can save up a significant amount of costs and energy for monitoring activities (Devkota, 2015). However, Devkota (2015) stated that this device still heavily requires improvements. Hence, monitoring activities and improvements should be rapidly improved and give attention to as it is crucial to mitigate ocean acidification.
Another solution that can mitigate ocean acidification is by using a long-term strategy that is reducing C02 emissions. Despite modest upfront costs, reducing CO2 pollution over the next several decades may result in significant economic benefits over the next few years (Cooley & Doney, 2009). The earth has a very slow recovery from excessive CO2 emissions that was predicted to continue to alter the ocean chemistry and affects it ecosystem in the foreseeable future (Cooley & Doney, 2009). Cooley & Doney (2009) claims that limiting fossil-fuel CO2 pollution to the atmosphere is the only true cure or mitigation option for ocean acidification, which is a long-term target that involves a radical reorganisation of power and transportation infrastructures worldwide. But reducing CO2 emissions in a large scale seems to be a very daunting task. Galdies et al. (2021) stated that reducing C02 emissions will require a global effort. Nevertheless, the actions to reduce CO2 emissions have been rapidly increased throughout the world as more government and communities began to realize their harsh effects. There have been increased in national pledges to mitigate pollution in-state that will be reviewed every five years or less (Galdies et al., 2021).
It can be concluded that ocean acidification is important to be addressed immediately. Ocean acidification is not an issue that can be neglected and turned a blind eye upon. Ocean acidification has founded to impact both the marine life and the human life simultaneously. It was investigated that ocean acidification causes calcifying marine organisms to be unable to build and maintain their shells, affecting the overall marine ecosystem periodically. Ocean acidification was also observed to have a significant impact on the economy as it impacts commercial fishing industries, causing reduced harvests. To mitigate this effect, we can establish a reliable monitoring networks to monitor a vast portion of the ocean or uses a long-term strategy to reduce C02 emissions. This situation must always be kept aware and the efforts to mitigate it must be emphasized.
References
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