Global ocean acidification - mean sea water pH time series and trends
Ocean acidification will put marine ecosystems at risk and thus more scientific, credible, and open data is needed to assess the impacts to help manage the ocean’s valuable resources.
Monitoring the world's ocean and coasts is an important prerequisite for effective decision-making that enables the protection and sustainable use of marine resources. Effective monitoring provides crucial data that informs policies, supports conservation efforts, and helps mitigate the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems.
Ocean acidification is quantified by decreases in pH in our oceans over a period of time, which is a measure of the ocean waters' acidity. The observed decrease in ocean pH, resulting from increasing uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, is an important indicator of global change. For more than 200 years, or since the industrial revolution, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased due to the burning of fossil fuels and land use change. The ocean absorbs about 30 percent of the (CO2) that is released in the atmosphere, and as levels of atmospheric CO2) increase, so do the levels in the ocean.
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Workshop on Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Marine Biology and Ecosystems (2011) defined Ocean Acidification as “a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period, typically decades or longer, which is caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but can also be caused by other chemical additions or subtractions from the ocean”.
Why is ocean acidification a problem?
The consequences of disrupting what has been a relatively stable ocean environment for tens of millions of years are beginning to show. Ocean acidification is literally causing a sea change that is threatening the fundamental chemical balance of ocean and coastal waters from pole to pole.