The scientists warning the world about ocean acidification – ‘evil twin’ of the climate crisis | Endangered habitats

S.Na Clear Day in Plymouth Marina You can see across the port outside Drake Island – which was named after the most famous son of the city, Francis Drake – to the channel. It is often possible to see an abundance of marine vessels, from marine ships and passenger phrases to small fishing boats and yachts. What you may not cross from this distance is a large yellow threshold swaying up and down in the water about six miles from the coast.

This data buoy – L4 – is one of the number of the Pleimoth Laboratory (PML), a research center in Devon dedicated to marine science. This morning, calm in May, Professor James Fishwick, the head of the PML for marine technology and autonomy, will be at the head of the buoy you examine for weather and other damage. “This buoy is one of the most developed in the world,” says climbing the ladder to the top. “It has been decorated with tools and sensors capable of measuring everything from temperature to salinity, dissolved oxygen, light and acidity.”

It is the hour records for this last measurement, and it is the pH in water, which adds to a picture locally and globally, scientists are increasingly mastering.

The results showed that the ocean gel is rising – and it does so at a rate that warns of danger. Ocean gel, often called “The twinning villain” From the climate crisis, it occurs when carbon dioxide is absorbed quickly in the ocean, then it interacts with water molecules, which leads to a decrease in acidity in the sea.

A paper outside Monday of the scholars at PML, the National Oceanic and County Oceania and U.S. -based atmosphere (NOAA) and CIMERS (Oregon State University) shows that ocean acidification occurs more quickly than he previously thought.

Part of the problem of scientists to wrap it to the world is that you cannot see the levels of the pH in the sea on the beach near you, so how do you know it is happening?

“It is difficult because there is no real smoking rifle,” says Professor Steve Widkomb, PML, and a pioneering world voice around ocean. “It is difficult to see the biological effects because they will take a long time to occur and distinguish the effects of ocean acidification from things such as temperature and hunting pressures and pollution makes it really difficult to generate momentum and momentum in decision makers and policy makers really.”

Anyone who wants an immediate idea of ​​its influence, there is a Very effective video from Noa This indicates fungal swimming in the water with the level of the regular pH, with one side where the Pteropod was subject to high levels of carbon dioxide for two weeks. In the first video, the marine creature contains a clear shell and actively swims, in the second, a partially dissolved shell appears partially preserved and Petrobod faces difficulty moving in the water. Such pictures help scientists raise awareness of this issue, but they will not be sufficient on their own.

This lack of vision and the understanding of the effects of acidification scientists to focus on building a group of work that clearly shows statistical relations between increasing acidity levels in the oceans and changes in biological processes to plants and animals in the sea in different regions around the world.

A good example can be seen in the northwest of the United States. With about 2010, the oyster agriculture industry is there – it deserves Millions of dollars – Almost collapsed after the shelling production seemed to go down a cliff.

Professor Helen Vendley explains the flag of what is going on: “On the western coast, you get a height of deep water, and that deep water has naturally obtained more carbon dioxide. But moreover, you have the effect of acidification from the air, and that it was amplified on this climb. Years.”

The level of acidity in the water has reached a point that means that the shellfish is besieged in the case of larvae and is unable to develop the shells they need to develop. Then the spoilers installed sensors to measure the pH in the water and add chemicals to the spoiled tanks to neutralize the water when necessary.

Scientists hope that education on initiatives such as in oyster spoilers in the northwest, along with government financing, will help other countries to take appropriate measures to the problem of their acids. But large parts of the world cannot access the information they need to start planning what to do.

There are obligations for states to address ocean acidification stipulated in international agreements, including, the last of them, World biological diversity frameworkThis aims to stop and reflect the loss of biological diversity. However, while decision makers either lack the resources necessary to address the problem, or simply write down their thumb to implement a plan, commercial operators intervene to provide alternative solutions.

Geological engineering has become the ocean of the big business. Companies focus on different ways of man -making to remove carbon from the seas, and perhaps the most advanced existence Enhanced alkaline in the ocean. This is where an alkaline solution is added to the sea water to raise the level of the pH. It is done at a very local level, as in tanks in oyster spoilers, this can be effective. But many scientists are concerned that the geological engineering industry in the ocean grows very quickly.

“We should not go along this way without evidence,” says Widdicombe. “Can you imagine going to your doctor and say” I have a drug here will pray. “If the doctor says that we did not really experience it and we were not sure of the side effects, will you remain happy to take it?”

Jesse Turner, CEO of Oceanal acid allianceFears that geological engineering may make people be absent from what is clear. “While exploring the search agenda on geological engineering interventions, the number one solution of human acidification reduces our carbon dioxide emissions,” she says. “I hope we will not lose the urgency for that. Without the governments taking more attention to ocean acids, there is this opportunity for the private sector to direct the cycle.”

Regardless of the primary goal of reducing carbon dioxide, there are other things that can be done to treat ocean acids, including limiting organic pollution in water, and it is often relatively easy to do at the local level, and create more flexible marine habitats around our beaches.

However, it is clear that scientists working in this field are increasingly frustrated because there is no urgency. Many hope so The United Nations Conference for this week In France it will provide a vital opportunity to discuss the problem of state heads and obtain it more strongly on government business schedules.

“At the end of the day, we know that carbon dioxide is rising, and the degree of acidity, and this is an urgent issue that people do not talk about,” says Turner. “It is the result of the carbon in our vicinity, as governments are no longer able to overlook the prevailing agendas, and the time to address them is running out.”