Ocean acidity expected to rapidly grow this century

Ocean acidification is one of the worst forms of pollution affecting our oceans, and by the current looks of it, the situation will become lot worse in years to come. A group of renowned ocean experts recently issued warning that the acidity of the world's ocean could increase by around 170% by the end of the century. This will not only result in major environmental damage but will also bring devastating economic losses.

The summary will be launched at the UNFCCC climate negotiations in Warsaw, 18 November, for the benefit of policymakers because climate change is the main reason behind the excessive and fast-growing ocean acidification as oceans sink carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Sadly, the capacity of the oceans to act as a carbon sink decrease as they become more acidic.

The increased ocean acidity will no doubt lead to major changes in marine biodiversity. It will likely cause declines in shellfish aquaculture and the degradation of tropical coral reefs which will affect the entire marine food chain leading to major environmental and economic losses.

Reducing the rate of carbon dioxide emissions can slow acidification but world leaders are yet to agree on serious carbon offset targets as there is still a major difference in opinion between developed and developing countries.

Acidification is just one of the issues troubling world oceans these days. The others include deoxygenation, pollution and overfishing.

These ocean stressors are yet to be taken seriously by world leaders, being very low at global political agenda, despite the countless scientific warnings.

Too much CO2 polluting our oceans

Our oceans are huge carbon sinkers and they absorb approximately one third of carbon dioxide (C02) from the atmosphere. The problem is that CO2 emissions continue to grow (the atmospheric levels of CO2 have increased by approximately 40% since the start of industrial revolution) which in turn leads to increased acidity of our oceans.

Carbon dioxide isn't only making its way into our oceans from the atmosphere but also because of growing water pollution with nutrients (nutrient runoff from fertilizer, human and animal waste).

The CO2 pollution coming from nutrients is often overlooked despite the fact that we are talking here about the major source of carbon dioxide in our oceans.

The increased level of nutrients in seawater also leads to algae bloom which is harmful for marine ecosystems because it results in depletion of oxygen from the water, which in turn leads to formation of ocean dead zones.

The U.S. scientists have developed computer models that showed that higher CO2 levels will substantially increase the acidity of ocean waters, which could even have major negative impact on commercial fisheries in coastal regions receiving nutrient inputs, such as the northern Gulf of Mexico and Baltic Sea.

Many marine species that play vital role at the bottom of marine food web could be adversely affected with increased acidity of our oceans with clams, oysters, scallops and mussels being likely the most heavily impacted.

The scientists have also expressed fears that these changes in ocean acidity could be already impacting commercial fish and shellfish populations.

As long as our society remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels, carbon dioxide levels will continue to grow, meaning that the climate change impact will further grow in size. This could spell danger for entire planet and our oceans are sadly no exception.

Ocean pollution facts

Ocean pollution is a growing environmental issue despite being way down on global political agenda. Just because oceans are huge this doesn’t mean that they are immune to pollution and they are certainly in need of more protection.

Ocean pollution can result from many different causes though the most common is illegal dumping of different waste materials.

Oil spill is also a form of ocean pollution. Oil leakage isn’t related only to tanker accidents but also to offshore drilling and routine maintenance of rigs. Major oil spills such as Exxon Valdez oil spill have devastating impact on marine life for a very long period of time because it takes many years for oil to be cleaned.

Ocean pollution causes great damage to people who rely on the oceans for their livelihoods because of its long-term negative impact on affected marine ecosystems (decline of fish species).   

Ocean acidification, as a direct consequence of increased climate change impact, is also increasing pollution in our oceans. Oceans are becoming increasingly acidic because of the larger CO2 intake and this can lead to extinction of corals and many other marine species that play vital role at the bottom of the marine food web.

Ocean pollution is taking heavy toll in developing countries such as China. In 2009, for instance, 147,000 square kilometers (59,000 square miles) of China's coastal waters failed to meet standards for "clear water" and there have been discovered significant amounts of lead and cadmium, both of which are highly toxic chemical elements.

The French scientists say that the entire Arctic Ocean will be inhospitable to shellfish by the end of the century because of the fast-growing CO2 emissions. Such scenario would cause massive marine biodiversity loss.

The increased levels of pollution in our oceans have resulted in the creation of so called „dead zones“. Ocean dead zones are areas in oceans where there isn't enough oxygen to support marine life.

Global warming is also polluting our oceans and this is not happening only in form of increased carbon emissions. Since oceans are becoming much warmer they are becoming inhospitable to some algae species. Fewer algae mean less food for many fish species and a big damage to entire marine food web.

In order to tackle ocean pollution issue world needs to establish more marine protected areas where marine life can thrive without human interference. Marine protected areas are only part of the solution, the other part is tackling the climate change.

The levels of pollution in our oceans need to be reduced because we need our oceans in healthy state. The U.S. scientists estimate that declines in ocean health and services will cost the global economy $428 billion per year by 2050 if we continue business as usual scenario.

Noise pollution in oceans continues to grow

Many scientists around the globe will agree that noise pollution in oceans is very serious environmental issue that could cause serious damage to marine food chain. Ever increasing noise pollution in our oceans has increased dramatically in the last couple of years, and fish and other marine species are finding it very hard to separate natural sounds from artificial sounds.

What this means is that fish can be attracted with the wrong sound which can even lead to serious decline of many fish species. Scientists are worried that in noisy environments the breakdown of natural behavior would likely result in devastating impacts on fish procreation and future fish stocks.

Several latest studies have showed that fish can accidentally learn to follow the wrong sounds, and by following these sounds they could end up stuck next to a construction site or follow a ship back out to sea, situations that will likely result in death.

UK-led team working on the Great Barrier Reef recently said that young fish is particularly sensible to noise pollution. Dr Steve Simpson, Senior Researcher in the University of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences pointed at this danger by saying that "when only a few weeks old, baby reef fish face a monumental challenge in locating and choosing suitable habitat. Reef noise gives them vital information, but if they can learn, remember and become attracted towards the wrong sounds, we might be leading them in all the wrong directions."

Wrong direction in marine world in most cases leads to a certain death. If noise pollution continues at this pace in our oceans many fish species will experience severe decline in population in years to come.

How to evaluate marine and ocean pollution?

In order to keep our seas and oceans clean we need to have some advanced monitoring systems that would give us an early warning signs for all types of pollution so we can prevent the worst. Our oceans are experiencing many different forms of pollution: ever-increasing climate change impact is having a major negative effect as warming water is provoking fish migrations, while a rising level of CO2 makes our oceans and seas more acidic. And of course there are also oil spills that remain a constant threat to marine environment.

Luckily there is Marine Environmental Remote-controlled Measuring And Integrated Detection (MERMAID) which represents an international team of scientists and engineers who have developed automatic sensors and analyzers, mounted on a network of radio-controlled stations, to sample, measure and record chemical and biological changes to water in our ocean and seas.

This helped set the foundations for reliable, widespread monitoring systems that provide accurate early warning of pollution, allowing marine authorities to take timely counter-measures to prevent catastrophe.

MERMAID showed its true worth at a heavily polluted maritime ecosystem, namely the European North Sea, where for the first time in history it was possible to detect in real-time "polluting events" such as algal blooms with associated heavy metal enrichment or the sudden release of nutrients from swollen rivers.

Hopefully MERMAID will open the door for many more advanced evaluating and measuring systems that would not only measure and evaluate but also to prevent the worst types of ocean and sea pollution.

Ocean pollution caused by oil spills and arsenic

Oil spills are creating different forms of ocean pollution, and the latest study published in the journal Water Research has even revealed that oil spills can also increase levels of toxic arsenic in the ocean, creating an additional long-term threat to many marine ecosystems.

Arsenic is poisonous material that is found in oil, and high levels of arsenic in seawater can enable the toxin to enter the food chain where it can create huge damage to many marine organisms. The negative effects of arsenic in seawater include disruption of photosynthesis process in marine plants, different genetic alterations that can cause birth defects, and it can also kill animals such as birds that feed on sea creatures affected by arsenic.

Though arsenic occurs naturally in the oceans, sediments on the sea floor filter it out of seawater, which keeps the levels of naturally occurring arsenic low. Oil spills can somewhat block the ocean's natural filtration system and prevent this from cleaning arsenic out of the seawater, which would significantly increase the levels of arsenic in seawater.

The researchers from the Imperial College London have discovered that oil spills and leakages clog up sediments on the ocean floor with oil, which prevents the sediments from bonding with arsenic and burying it safely underground with subsequent layers of sediment. The scientists also explained that this shutdown of the natural filtration system causes arsenic levels in seawater to rise. Increased levels of arsenic in seawater means that arsenic can enter the marine ecosystems, where it becomes more concentrated and poisonous the further it moves up the food chain.

To connect this with the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico the scientists said how they "can't accurately measure how much arsenic is in the Gulf at the moment because the spill is ongoing". However, they have warned that the real danger lies in arsenic's ability to concentrate and accumulate, which means that each subsequent spill raises the levels of this pollutant in seawater.

Since thousands of gallons of oil are leaked into our oceans each year from not only big oil spills but also from offshore drilling and routine maintenance of rigs, many places may be at risk from increased arsenic levels, which could in the long run affect entire marine life, and also the people who rely on the oceans for their livelihoods.

Ocean pollution in China

China is well known for water and air pollution problems, but we can also add the ocean pollution problem to the list of environmental problems that China is facing today. China's coastal waters are getting more and more polluted by almost every possible form of waste, even toxic waste like lead and cadmium.

In fact the situation with lead and cadmium is already out of control because latest report said that levels of lead detected in shellfish were 50 percent higher than normal, while cadmium levels were about 40 percent higher compared to normal levels.

Lead is highly damaging for humans, it can have extremely harmful effect on the human nervous system, and can even cause brain disorder if consumed in excessive amounts.

Polluted coastal waters in China.

The situation with ocean pollution is becoming worse with each year and latest numbers say that 147,000 square kilometres (59,000 square miles) of China's coastal waters failed to meet standards for "clear water" in 2009, a significant increase in ocean pollution of 7.3 percent over 2008. One of the most obvious signs of tremendous ocean pollution in China are algae blooms, that are in most cases caused by excessive sewage, and in 2009 algae bloom affected 14,100 square kilometres which is around 3.5 times the size of the area affected by such blooms in the 1990s.

The multidimensional pollution problem in China is the result of tremendous economic growth in the last 20 years. On one side economy has never felt better, and on the other environment has never been in such poor state. Overall environmental quality is fast deteriorating in China, and China's pollution problem is likely to become even bigger in years to come.

North Atlantic polluted by plastic debris

Ocean pollution is one of the most serious forms of pollution that often gets unnoticed, and only God knows how much garbage has been actually dumped into our oceans. The latest unpleasant discovery of ocean pollution is area of North Antarctic where scientists have located the accumulation plastic debris.

The issue of plastic garbage has so far been much neglected for Atlantic but hopefully things will change with this new discovery. On many places in North Atlantic there have been found floating pieces of plastic on the water surface. The maximum "plastic density" that scientists found was 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometre in one region of the North Atlantic.

Scientists still do not fully know how does plastic debris affect marine environment but many marine organisms are consuming these plastics, and this has a particularly bad effect on seabirds.

The pieces of plastic mostly found in North Atlantic were in average very small to about 1cm across, but there were lot of these pieces.

Scientists still have to determine the exact effect that plastic debris has on our oceans, it is definitely not as hazardous to environment like oil spills, or toxic waste but it definitely has some negative environmental effects. it is up to science to determine how big these negative effect really are.

Ocean pollution in form of ocean acidification

Because of the excessive carbon emissions our oceans are becoming more and more acidic, in fact the scientists from the University of Bristol have calculated that since the industrial revolution started acidity in our seas and oceans has increased by staggering 30 percent.

The acidity of the oceans is changing too fast. The scientists have come to conclusion that such a fast change is likely to have occurred 65 million years ago, when some natural event caused ocean acidification and the extinction of dinosaurs. The excessive acidity of our oceans could in years to come present the real problem to not only many marine organisms but also to our future generations.

The ocean acidification will mostly affect the tiny marine organisms that despite being at the bottom of the food chain play extremely important role in the proper functioning of global marine ecosystems. Ocean acidification is harmful from many different ways, it can dissolve the carbonate shells of some marine organisms and cause muscle wastage and dwarfism in others.

Ocean acidification is constantly accelerating, and many scientists believe that many marine species are already finding it very tough to adapt to these ever-increasing levels of acidification. Among the mostly affected species are coral reefs that play vital role in many marine ecosystems. If the acidification continues at such fast pace we could see major disrupt in marine ecosystems even before the end of this century.

Corals are among the marine species mostly affected with ocean acidification.

Unless we reduce the carbon emissions from our cars and our factories acidification will continue to grow, and the damage done to our oceans will be tremendous. We must not forget that mass extinction in oceans is likely to threaten ecosystems on global level in the future.

Ocean acidification - Threat to marine food chain

Ocean acidification is definitely among the biggest ecological problems we are facing today. Oceans absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from Earth's atmosphere. Due to excessive fossil fuels burning there is a lot more CO2 in the atmosphere the water is also becoming more acidic which threatens not only corals, and other marine organisms that have shells and skeletons build out of calcium carbonate but also the complete marine food web.

Dr Donald Potts, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz said how increased ocean acidification will "disrupt developmental processes of populations and communities on many scales, and it's going to change the dominant organism in the food chain, with very real danger that it may short-circuit the food chains".

Ocean acidification is one of the biggest ecological problems

Ocean acidification will not affect all parts of the oceans equally. Within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of shore, acidity of ocean water is more variable than in the rest of the ocean. Fresh water and wind from the land can carry chemicals that alter the pH of near-shore water, making it either more acidic or more alkaline. There are probably some organisms in this region that are already starting to adapt to these changes in ocean acidity. But one thing is sure though, many marine species will fail to adapt if CO2 levels continue to rise.

Ocean pollution - A really big problem

Many people aren't still aware that ocean pollution is a major problem that isn't only affecting the ocean but the rest of the Earth as well. Ocean pollution directly affects living organisms in ocean and indirectly humans and their health. There are many sources of pollution and the most dangerous is illegal dumping, especially of poisonous materials. This illegal dumping is unfortunately so, wide spread and is causing damage to many plants and animals in the ocean. On top of the food chain we could easily end up eating seafood that was harmed by some toxic materials before it came to our plates. Especially dangerous is the lead which can cause a lot of health problems, especially damaging brain and kidneys. Recycling is the right answer but unfortunately not for all people.

Dumping is the biggest problem but there are other problems as well like wastewater, use of pesticides and other chemicals in agriculture, which you definitely wouldn't think of right away. Wastewater is a run-off from rainwater that ends up in rivers, lakes and oceans as well. Majority of people still don't know that this run-off is going into the ocean at daily bases in small amounts which are piling hence creating a major problem. Agriculture is also harmful to the ocean because pesticides and other dangerous chemicals are taken off of the plants and carried to the oceans when it rains.

Oil pollution also has tremendous affects on oceans and presents real dangers in form of tankers and their possible failure or crash which could lead to oil leakage as it was the infamous Exxon Valdez incident. In this accident 10.8 million gallons were spilled, causing deaths of many animals, including 250,000–500,000 seabirds, 2,800–5,000 sea otters, approximately 12 river otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, and 22 orcas, as well as the destruction of billions of salmon and herring eggs.

Oil spill cleaning efforts usually need months or even years to clean up the polluted area and by the time cleaning is done many fish species, seabirds and even some mammals had already died because of it. And as the scientific results in infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill showed effects are far more lasting than it was expected, and some habitats may take more than 30 years to recover, which is very long time so you can imagine total negative impact on affected ecosystems.

Global warming is another major problem and is concerning oceans as well. Global warming causes the water to rise and when it rises, it covers low land islands with plants, animals, and even some people’s homes on them. This can hurt animals in the different layers of the ocean. Other problem is warm water that is killing some algae which can't stand this temperature, and this has effect on complete food chain because there are some fishes that eat these algae, meaning they don't have food, some other fishes eat this fishes meaning they don’t have food as well, etc, and the food chain is irreversibly broken.

There are indeed many problems but not that many answers because all ecological problems are connected on the global scale and therefore solving one of them isn't completely possible without solving all of them, which is at this moment almost impossible task. Public conscience still isn't on the required level, scientists' warnings aren’t still seriously understood and legislation is insufficient and not strict enough. There's also need for global action, because world is one big community and some individual action won't solve anything, although it could point out way the things should go to. Now, will this way be followed and by whom it remains to be seen. We can only hope for the best and contribute as much as we can.

Ocean pollution happens every day and is harmful to many sea plants and animals and eventually to the human health as well.