The Island of Doubt

As someone with a marine biology degree, I’ve been asked to help spread the word about the threat to ocean ecosystems from falling pH levels — what everyone who doesn’t have a marine biology degree calls ocean acidification. It’s a worthy cause. Read the following letter, review this report and then go to this site and do something about it:















Thank you for your support.

Randy Repass
West Marine

Sally-Christine Rodgers
Board Member


  1. #1 Phyllograptus
    July 16, 2009

    The problem with this whole post is that its wrong. As the oceans warm the amount of dissolved CO2 in them will actually decrease even with increased concentrations of atmosphereic CO2. Simple chemistry people. The partial pressure in the atmosphere is not changing, the CO2 content in the atmosphere is rising. Climate change and global warming predict the oceans should be warming. CO2 follows a reverse solubility curve, i.e. as water warms it cannot hold as much dissolved CO2, as such it either precipitates it or off gases. Its a naturally stabilizing system.

  2. #2 James Hrynyshyn
    July 16, 2009

    @Phyllograptus: The probelem with your post is it’s wrong. Falling pH is a real phenomenon in the oceans. It is both predicted as a result of basic chemistry and observed.

  3. #3 michael
    July 16, 2009

    Sorry, Phyllograptus; the original post is correct, you are mistaken.

    The amount of CO2 that will dissolve in water is dependent on two things: the temperature (warmer water dissolves less CO2–you were correct here) AND the concentration of CO2 in the air. We are adding so much CO2 to the air, that it is forcing even warmer water to dissolve more CO2.

    CO2 + H20 < ---> H+ + HCO3-. The temperature definitely affects the equilibrium, but regardless of temperature, adding CO2 to the left side forces the reaction to the right.

  4. #4 Phyllograptus
    July 16, 2009

    Okay, as I see lots of other posters use this comment. Show me the Proof. Not comment that the pH is dropping. Can someone provide a link to peer reviewed papers documneting the data behind this. All I have been ever able to see is the comments its happening no one ever actually gives the data.
    With regards to increased CO2 in the atmosphere causing increased dissolved CO2 in the ocean water driving the equation to the right. You miss the point about partial pressures. Yes the equation is correct, however small changes in concentrations without corresponding changes pressure just will not drive the equation very far. The solubility of CO2 in water is low and mostly controlled by pressure changes not by concentration of CO2 available. Not to mention the overall size of the CO2 reservoir (i.e oceans)that is being impacted. In addition any increase in temperature is going to buffer in increase in atmosphereic CO2 increase by reducing the solubility of CO2 in the ocean waters

  5. #5 James Hrynyshyn
    July 16, 2009

    @Phyllograptus: it’s not hard to find. The first reference on the Wikipedia entry on the subject.

    Caldeira, K.; Wickett, M.E. (2003). “Anthropogenic carbon and ocean pH”. Nature 425 (6956): 365–365

    Here’s the opening paragraph:

    Most carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the burning of fossil fuels will eventually be absorbed by the ocean, with potentially
    adverse consequences for marine biota…. We find that oceanic absorption of CO2 from fossil fuels may result in larger pH changes over the next several centuries than any inferred from the geological record of the past 300 million years….

    Or how about this, from the second reference, Orr, James C.; et al. (2005). Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms. Nature 437 (7059): 681–686

    Ocean uptake of CO2 will help moderate future climate change, but the associated chemistry, namely hydrolysis of CO2 in seawater, increases the hydrogen ion concentration [Hþ]. Surface ocean pH is already 0.1 unit lower than preindustrial values. By the end of the century, it will become another 0.3–0.4 units lower.

    I think where you’re going wrong is the science does lead to the conclusion that the oceans’ ability to absord CO2 will eventually reach a maximum. There is even evidence that its ability to serve as a CO2 sink is already declining in some parts, particularly the Southern Ocean. Which is, of course, very bad news. First, because by that time, the organisms that depend on current pH levels will be stressed beyond their ability to cope, and second because that means the rate at which the atmospheric CO2 level is rising will increase significantly.

  6. #6 Phyllograptus
    July 16, 2009

    Thanks for the links. I’ve tried the link to the Caldeira paper both through your link and from the reference list on Wikipedia, and cannot access it in either fashion. I will try from another machine, or if you have a copy would it be possible to get a copy.

  7. #7 James Hrynyshyn
    July 16, 2009

    Phyllo: try these:

    this link
    this link

  8. #8 Oakden Wolf
    July 17, 2009

    For Phyllograptus:
    (Our Dying Oceans: Acidification Threatens the Entire Marine Ecosystem

    The striking first figure in this article is from:


    And if you don’t know who Peter Brewer is and why he knows a bit about the subject:
    (Peter Brewer, Senior Scientist, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)

  9. #9 paulm
    July 19, 2009

    Higher tides affecting East Coast, especially mid-Atlantic

    Scientists are closely watching unusually high tides along the entire East Coast, especially in mid-Atlantic states including Virginia, where average daily levels are running between 6 inches and 2 feet above predicted norms.

    One veteran researcher at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, John Boon, said he suspects the trend could be the beginning of …

  10. #10 Sohpet
    July 27, 2009

    Thanks .

  11. #11 sohbet odasi
    July 29, 2009

    thnk you

  12. #12 Hank Roberts
    August 18, 2009

    ‘Sohpet’ and ‘sohbet’ is probably linkspamming; it’s been associated with malware sources in the past.

    Thanks for the pointers. Good to see West Marine’s smart about this issue.
