{"id":223,"date":"2009-02-03T17:36:21","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T21:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=223"},"modified":"2009-02-03T17:36:21","modified_gmt":"2009-02-03T21:36:21","slug":"carbon-doesnt-sink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2009\/02\/03\/carbon-doesnt-sink\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbon doesn&#8217;t &#8216;sink&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/science\/nature\/7860350.stm\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright img-fluid\" src=\"http:\/\/newsimg.bbc.co.uk\/media\/images\/44719000\/jpg\/_44719777_coralcolony226.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"226\" height=\"170\"><\/a>Oceans are a reliable carbon sink in scientists\u2019 climate change models because they absorb so much of the atmosphere\u2019s excess carbon dioxide. But this good news for climate change is bad news for ocean life: \u00a0dissolved carbon is making the oceans more acidic, which threatens the balance of the marine food chain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">That dissolved carbon (and a slew of other nutrients) is acidifying our waters is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.org\/wherewework\/northamerica\/states\/hawaii\/files\/final_declaration_no_app.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">not new news<\/a>. Last week, however, an international consortium of 155 scientists issued a report raising an alarm about the speed with which the oceans\u2019 pH levels are falling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">It\u2019s estimated that the oceans absorb about 25 percent of human carbon dioxide emissions. As the gas dissolves in the oceans, it produces <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Carbonic_acid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">carbonic acid<\/a>. The group says the acidity of ocean surface waters has increased by 30 percent since the 17th century.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">The report summarizes conference proceedings from a symposium held in Monaco last October. Called the Monaco Declaration, the report said that increasing acidity is interfering with the growth and health of shellfish and eating away at coral reefs, processes that would eventually harm marine food webs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Read more in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/01\/31\/science\/earth\/31ocean.html?ref=science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York Times<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/science\/nature\/7860350.stm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BBC <\/a>articles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Photo credit:\u00a0 BBC<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oceans are a reliable carbon sink in scientists\u2019 climate change models because they absorb so much of the atmosphere\u2019s excess carbon dioxide. But this good news for climate change is bad news for ocean life: \u00a0dissolved carbon is making the oceans more acidic, which threatens the balance of the marine food chain. That dissolved carbon (and a slew of other&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecology-in-policy","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}