Ocean acidification

This thread is for discussion of ocean acidification, its causes, properties and ramifications.

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24 Thoughts on “Ocean acidification

  1. THREAD on 19/10/2010 at 2:31 pm said:

    The PH Scale

    0 – 14,

    7 is neutral,

    7 -14 is alkaline,

    0 – 7 is acid,

    the ocean is 8+

    Go figger!

  2. THREAD on 23/10/2010 at 11:16 am said:

    Acid Seas, Back to Basic

    Dennis Ambler, February 2010

  3. Richard C (NZ) on 23/10/2010 at 11:25 am said:

    Huff Post is really getting silly now.

    Climate Science Round-Up: Ocean Fertilization (or Climate Liposuction)

  4. THREAD on 29/10/2010 at 8:46 pm said:

    Ocean Acidification Database

    CO2 Science

  5. Richard C (NZ) on 03/11/2010 at 11:11 am said:

    NGO pleads for $15 billion “ocean acidification” monitoring system

    Posted on November 1, 2010 by Anthony Watts

    Via Eurekalert, from the NGO Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO), a press release that says, “panic! please send money”. Here’s the punch line:

    The Foundation says the average level of pH at the ocean surface has dropped from 8.2 to 8.1 units, “rendering the oceans more acidic than they have been for 20 million years,”

    Note that any pH lower than 7.0 is considered “acidic”. Distilled (pure) water has a pH of 7.0. Right now the ocean with a pH of 8.1 is considered “basic”.

  6. Richard C (NZ) on 12/11/2010 at 2:33 pm said:

    Are oceans becoming more acidic and is this a threat to marine life?

    By Dr J Floor Anthoni (2007)

    seafriends.org.nz

  7. Andy on 09/07/2011 at 8:03 pm said:

    The great men of Otago (Doug Mackie and Keith Hunter) are planning an 18 part series on Ocean Acidification over at Skeptical Science.

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/Mackie_OA_not_OK_post_0.html

    As Mackie points out at Hot topic

    “Denialists have not touched ocean acidification because they don’t understand it.”

    No Doug, that’s right.
    Actually, we haven’t had time to deal with this particular issue, and I am so glad that the great NZers in Otago have managed to lay claim to this last bastion of CAGW

    Don’t worry guys, the Zulus are coming.

  8. Richard C (NZ) on 04/10/2011 at 9:09 am said:

    NIWA’s acidic ocean
    —————————————————————————————————————————
    New Climate Change Atlas for our massive ocean real estate

    Monday, 3 October 2011, 9:22 am
    Press Release: NIWA

    The seas surrounding New Zealand could warm by up to 4oC in the coming century.

    The last ten years of monthly monitoring results have shown an increase in acidity in Subantarctic waters off Otago. This is probably due to the recorded increase in atmospheric CO2 and subsequent CO2 uptake by the ocean. This trend is consistent with that observed in long-term time series studies in other regions of the ocean. Ocean acidification has been shown to affect reproduction, behavior, and physiological functions of some species.

    Background facts

    • surface waters will warm, freshen (i.e., become less salty), and so become less dense. This will increase the density gradient between surface and deeper waters (i.e., stratification), which will reduce the upward supply of plant nutrients to the surface from deeper waters

    • the surface layer where the phytoplankton live will become thinner and so the phytoplankton will receive more light

    the warmer ocean will contain less dissolved oxygen, and the volume of the mid-water column oxygen-deficient zones will increase

    • increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will enter the ocean making it more acidic and causing carbonate shells to dissolve at shallower depths

    • there will be large-scale changes in wind fields, affecting ocean currents and vertical mixing

    • storm frequency and dust deposition will increase, influencing nutrient supply.

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1110/S00002/new-climate-change-atlas-for-our-massive-ocean-real-estate.htm
    —————————————————————————————————————————
    Massive spin by NIWA predicated on the words “could warm”.

    Apparently the ocean is already acidic and it WILL become MORE acidic according to NIWA.

    The ocean is basic (pH 8 -9) according to this scale:-

    http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/184ph.html

    Fish reproduction is affected by acidity pH 4 – 5 and fish die in acidity pH 3 – 4.according to college education material.

    So NIWA:-

    Is the ocean acidic or basic?

    Is it acidic and nearing pH 4?

    What was the actual pH “acidity” measurement of Subantarctic waters off Otago (and why didn’t you include that in your Press Release)?

  9. Richard C (NZ) on 23/02/2012 at 9:20 am said:

    A team led by Dr. Daniel Mayor, an Independent Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab, investigated how future global warming and ocean acidification scenarios affected the health of copepod eggs.

    Unlike many other climate-change studies, they repeated their experiment at a later date and found different results.

    Dr. Mayor said: “Both of our experiments indicated that the health of copepod eggs remains unaffected when they are exposed to ocean acidification levels predicted for the end of the 21st century. This is great news.

    http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-climate-one-off.html

  10. Jim Mck on 26/11/2012 at 2:46 pm said:

    I quess it is not surprising to see articles like this appearing ahead of Doha. I am sure Dorothee
    will have earned a ticket.

    Headline:

    “Rising acidity levels threaten ocean’s food chain, study finds”

    http://www.smh.com.au/environment/rising-acidity-levels-threaten-oceans-food-chain-study-finds-20121126-2a23p.html

    After 80% of the article details ridiculous claims about absorption of ACO2 causing dangerous rises in ocean acidity, we find that has nothing to do with the research.

    Instead:

    “We know that the seawater becomes more corrosive below a certain depth which occurs at around 1,000m. However, at one of our sampling sites, we discovered that this point was reached at 200m depth. Marine snails – pteropods – live in this top layer of the ocean,” Bednarek said.

    Climate models forecast more intense winds in the Southern Ocean this century if CO2 continues to increase, which will make the mixing of deep water with more [should that be less]acidic surface waters more frequent, the study said.

    This will make calcium carbonate reach the upper surface layers of the Southern Ocean by 2050 in winter and by 2100 all year round, said the study’s co-author Dorothee Bakker, research officer at the University of East Anglia.”

    Seemingly any piece of scientific research can be spun into a good headline.

  11. Richard C (NZ) on 10/09/2014 at 10:04 pm said:

    The best continuous long-term record of observed pH is the Monterey Bay Aquarium from 1996-present (from The Hockey Schtick):

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sMs0pJzq4Bk/VA-mYSa_sEI/AAAAAAAAGYc/brYTKYkpvMY/s1600/monterey_bay_ph.png

    http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/debunking-latest-un-climate-propaganda.html

    Multiple plots of the pH spot check data vs. time, for the period 1995 – present as
    measured in the incoming water to the Monterey Bay Aquarium drawn from a
    ~50ft depth. Each of the following pages contains a 10-year period of the data,
    with the monthly mean ± standard error of the spot checks being presented. The
    pH was analyzed using the method outlined with this project. Both short-term
    seasonal changes and longer-term events, such as El Nino, are present in the
    data.

    http://sanctuarysimon.org/regional_docs/monitoring_projects/100240_167.pdf

    Theory, meet reality.

    • Richard C (NZ) on 24/12/2014 at 7:12 pm said:

      NOAAgate: how ‘ocean acidification’ could turn out to be the biggest con since Michael Mann’s Hockey Stick

      by James Delingpole, 23 Dec 2014

      Christmas has come a couple of days early for climate sceptics, in what may well prove to be one of the biggest blows to the Global Warming religion since Climategate.

      This time the pillar of green faith which has been rudely dismantled by sceptical investigators is an alleged phenomenon known as “ocean acidification.”

      For years this has been touted by environmentalists as possibly the greatest threat to the planet after “global warming.”

      According to Jane Lubchenko, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it is “climate change’s equally evil twin” because of the disastrous consequences it may have for everything from the navigational systems of spawning salmon to the health of coral reefs.

      Ocean acidification is said to be caused when excess atmospheric carbon dioxide is absorbed by the sea, reducing its pH levels to make it more acidic.

      But, as Watts Up With That reports new evidence unearthed by an inquisitive graduate student suggests that “ocean acidification” may be a scientific fraud to rank with the great “man-made-global warming” scare.

      At the centre of the scandal is NOAA, the US federal scientific agency which measures and researches changes in the oceans and atmosphere, and which maintains one of the temperature datasets used to measure “global warming.”

      Continues>>>>>>
      http://www.breitbart.com/london/2014/12/23/noaagate-how-ocean-acidification-could-turn-out-to-be-the-biggest-con-since-michael-manns-hockey-stick/

    • Richard C (NZ) on 24/12/2014 at 7:22 pm said:

      ‘What if Obama’s climate change policies are based on pHraud?’

      Marita Noon

      “Ocean acidification” (OA) is receiving growing attention. While someone who doesn’t follow climate change science might think OA is a stomach condition resulting from eating bad seafood, OA is claimed to be a phenomenon that will destroy ocean life—all due to mankind’s use of fossil fuels. It is a foundational theory upon which the global warming/climate change narrative is built.

      […]

      Within the Quest text is a link to a chart by Dr. Richard A. Feely, who is a senior scientist with the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL)—which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Feely’s climate-crisis views are widely used to support the narrative.

      Feely’s four-page report: Carbon Dioxide and Our Ocean Legacy, offered on the NOAA website, contains a similar chart. This chart, titled “Historical & Projected pH & Dissolved Co2,” begins at 1850. Feely testified before Congress in 2010—using the same data that shows a decline in seawater pH (making it more acidic) that appears to coincide with increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.

      In 2010, Feely received the $100,000 cash prize from the Heinz Family Foundation awards (established by Teresa Heinz, wife of Secretary of State John Kerry). The Heinz award site touts Feely’s work: “Ocean acidity is now considered global warming’s ‘evil twin,’ thanks in large measure to Dr. Feely’s seminal research on the changing ocean chemistry and its impact on marine ecosystems.”

      However, an inquisitive graduate student presented me with a very different “lesson” on OA research.

      Mike Wallace is a hydrologist with nearly 30 years’ experience, who is now working on his Ph.D. in nanogeosciences at the University of New Mexico. In the course of his studies, he uncovered a startling data omission that he told me: “eclipses even the so-called climategate event.” Feely’s work is based on computer models that don’t line up with real-world data—which Feely acknowledged in email communications with Wallace (which I have read). And, as Wallace determined, there is real world data. Feely, and his coauthor Dr. Christopher L. Sabine, PMEL Director, omitted 80 years of data, which incorporate more than 2 million records of ocean pH levels.

      Continues>>>>>>>>
      http://energymakesamericagreat.org/current-energy-commentary

    • Richard C (NZ) on 27/12/2014 at 8:38 am said:

      Sabine’s excuse for using modeled data over real data? – ‘earlier data is not of “sufficient quality.”‘

      December 25, 2014. WUWT reader Peter Gadiel writes:

      After reading of the critique of Sabine’s exclusion of the historical data on ocean acidification I emailed him. I thought his response might be of interest to you at WUWT. He says the earlier data is not of “sufficient quality.”

      http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/12/25/sabines-excuse-for-using-modeled-data-over-real-data-earlier-data-is-not-of-sufficient-quality/

    • Richard C (NZ) on 27/12/2014 at 8:53 am said:

      Evidence discovered that ‘ocean acidification’ scare may be as fraudulent as ‘global warming’

      Written by Thomas Lifson, American Thinker on 26 December 2014.

      http://www.climatechangedispatch.com/evidence-discovered-that-ocean-acidification-scare-may-be-as-fraudulent-as-global-warming.html

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