What effect would a decrease in the pH of the ocean have on sea life?

Question

I'm writing about the potential effects of global warming..

I read that there would be a decrease in the pH of the ocean, because of the change in carbon levels.. I know that would make the ocean more acidic.. but how would that affect sea life?

Any chemistry nerds here? :)

Answer 1

The first thing that must be recognized is that the pH of any solution is readily changed. How *much* change is dependent on the *amount* of acid or base, the *strength* of that chemical, and the buffering capacity of the solution.

Seawater is buffered with about 180 mg/L of bicarbonate. That is very good buffering. It would have to be, to protect sea life from drastic pH gradients which would otherwise harm it.

CO2 is pretty toxic to humans. Without doing calculations, I believe we would experience trouble breathing before the sea was harmed so badly that it had a drastic effect on people.

We would do well to pay attention, however. If something wiped out the algae in the ocean, then artificially-recycled oxygen would have to be supplied to every human and animal to keep them alive. A nuclear world war sounds like a sunday picnic, by contrast.

Answer 2

Acidification

The world’s oceans soak up much of the carbon dioxide produced by living organisms, either as dissolved gas, or in the skeletons of tiny marine creatures that fall to the bottom to become chalk or limestone.

But in water, carbon dioxide becomes a weak carbonic acid, and "the increase in the greenhouse gas since the industrial revolution has already altered the average pH - the laboratory measure of acidity - significantly and will go on doing so for at least 100 years."

There are concerns that increasing acidification could have a particularly detrimental effect on corals (16% of the world's coral reefs have died from bleaching since 1998) and other marine organisms with calcium carbonate shells. Increased acidity may also directly affect the growth and reproduction of fish as well as the plankton on which they rely on for food. Scientists warn that the chemistry of the oceans is changing in ways unprecedented for 20 million years. Some predict that the world's coral reefs will die within 35 years.

Note: I was not able to verify the statement with any sites showing test results or scientific data.

Answer 3

If you were to decrease the pH of the ocean it would do three things,

1) the more acid in the ocean, the fewer animals that could survive.
this would lead to an almost immediate extinction of most fish and water plants.
2) It would cause the polar ice-caps to melt, since there is more acid in the water, it would burn the ice. actually, it would also probably increase the overall temperature of the water.
3) we would have to devise ships with class on the outside instead of steal or iron, because, over time, the acid would burn through the metal, but not glass.

Answer 4

It would kill it...if it happened relatively quickly...a few hundred years. Some of the mammals may survive, but they would most likely go blind. If it's just a small change, then it might not bring on too much harm...I mean, to make the ocean greatly acidic is one great undertaking, there's so much water.

Oh, and the polar ice caps would not melt...acid doesn't "burn" ice or anything for that matter(it reacts). Acid doesn't react with water...most acids are in fact diluted by water.

Answer 5

many kids of fish won't be able to survive... different fish need different level of pH... if the pH level will go down, a lot of types of fishes will de destroyed

Answer 6

they would either slow adapt (if it happend slow) or they would all die (except the gold fish they live in anything)