Ocean Acidification. Who really cares?

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Biology - Ecology, , language: English, abstract: Ocean acidification (OA) refers to the ongoing decrease in the pH of the earth's oceans that is caused by the uptake of Carbon dioxide (CO2) gas from the atmosphere. It is postulated that the pH in ocean surface waters could decline further from the pre-industrial values by the end of the century (2100) if atmospheric CO2 concentration reaches 1000 mg/l. These chemical changes in the ocean are likely to have subsequent biological consequences in marine ecosystems.

Despite the wideness of the topic of ocean acidification, this brief review attempts to bring into focus, in a simplified way, some of the key aspects relating to ocean acidification. OA is introduced and viewed in terms of its impacts on selected marine organisms as well as on social systems.