Growing Acidity of Oceans May Kill Corals

Washington Post ^ | Juliet Eilperin

[palmer]

The escalating level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is making the world's oceans more acidic, government and independent scientists say. They warn that, by the end of the century, the trend could decimate coral reefs and creatures that underpin the sea's food web...

The ph level for the world's oceans was stable between 1000 and 1800, but has dropped one-tenth of a unit since the Industrial Revolution, according to Christopher Langdon, a University of Miami marine biology professor.

Scientists expect ocean pH levels to drop by another 0.3 units by 2100,...

[palmer]

Yet another example of faulty proxy interpretation, like temperature, like CO2 and dandruff (they've examined archeological sites and found increasing levels of dandruff due to global warming). The simple fact is that proxies do not have very good resolution. Yes, they are accurate, in come cases exceedingly accurate such as CO2 in ice cores. The problem there is resolution, the measurement takes decades (in older cores, up to a century) of CO2 and averages it. So a blib like we are seeing today would be lost if followed by an equal decrease.

In the case of ocean acidification, the proxies have two problems. Like other proxies, they lack resolution. The other problem is the calcification measures not only acidity but warmth and other factors that affect growth. See http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/subject/c/summaries/calcification.jsp for more info.

[raybbr]

ping

[pageonetoo]

Growing Acidity of Oceans May Kill Corals

Should read: Growing addiction to gum't grants may fund researchers stupid projects!

[WorkerbeeCitizen]

We're killing the earth! The sky is falling!

[johnny7]

Only a huge, worldwide 'liming' can save us now.

[alloysteel]

Ah, the changing tides of life. Some species wax strong, others fall into small niches from which they may disappear altogether.

Now, either evolution works, or it does not. The species that disappear, are replaced, over time, with the niche species emerging to replace others that occupied that level. From this niche in life, the newly adapted species either expands into the greater biosphere, or it remains in its small corner of creation, to fade out of existence and be replaced by still another species that has adapted.

If evolution does NOT work, then, over time, all species save mankind will be wiped out, and humanity shall have to fill all the biological functions on the planet. At least until they spread toanother world, where the cycle of wiping out native species may begin all over again.

Are both sides of the argument laid out?

[Publius6961]

government and independent scientists say.

OMG!

The dreaded "government and independent scientists" again!
Those guys sure are busy!
They turned lose another bunch of them, did they?

One of the definite downsides of the space age: supersensitive measuring instruments and techniques. High tech in the hands of apes.

[gr8eman]

Are these the same scientists that said acid rain would ruin the Erf some years back?

[eeriegeno]

Sören Sörenson coined the term "PH" (which was later converted to "pH") in 1909, to represent the exponential power (-log) of the concentration of Hydrogen ions (which he termed "CH", now symbolized as [H+]).

I suppose that someone had water samples saved since the 11th century so that this test could be made in the 21st century?????

[palmer]

I suppose that someone had water samples saved since the 11th century

Indeed. As someone else pointed out the power of scientific instruments to make measurements (e.g. calcification in buried strata) has gotten way beyond the ability to interpret them holistically and consider all uncertainties. So a 0.0001% accuracy measurement of calcium in muck ends up being misinterpreted as a highly accurate acidity measurement. It is not, many other things affect the acidity and many years or decades worth of muck are unevenly averaged into the sample.

[Thebaddog]

For decades, scientists have viewed the oceans' absorption of carbon dioxide as an environmental plus, because it mitigates the effects of global warming. But by taking up one-third of the atmosphere's carbon dioxide -- much of which stems from exhaust from automobiles, power plants and other industrial sources -- oceans are transforming their pH level.

Aside from the smug little aside in the last sentence, this passage is a criminal indictment of the incompetence of the global warming scientific community. Something is good and then it's bad. Who's in charge over at the Global Warming offices?

[burroak]

Not to worry.

There must be gazillions of those little coral critters in the ocean. Surely the "law" of natural selection and evolution will create a perfectly good response to the changing acidity problem.

If ever there was a experiment to test Darwin's notion, this has to be as close as it gets. Although the number of individual corals are not infinite, it surely must be a large enough sample to give it a good go.

When push comes to shove, the "godless ones" won't have the faith of their convictions and let the evolution experiment play itself out.

[palmer]

And for those who don't believe in evolution, there's plenty of evidence of adaptation (see my link above).