#Ocean acidification

[kp777]

By Julia Conley

Common Dreams

April 25, 2023

Scientists are so alarmed by a new study on ocean warming that some declined to speak about it on the record, the BBC reported Tuesday.

"One spoke of being 'extremely worried and completely stressed,'" the outlet reported regarding a scientist who was approached about research published in the journal Earth System Science Data on April 17, as the study warned that the ocean is heating up more rapidly than experts previously realized—posing a greater risk for sea-level rise, extreme weather, and the loss of marine ecosystems.

Scientists from institutions including Mercator Ocean International in France, Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the United States, and Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research collaborated to discover that as the planet has accumulated as much heat in the past 15 years as it did in the previous 45 years, the majority of the excess heat has been absorbed by the oceans.

In March, researchers examining the ocean off the east coast of North America found that the water's surface was 13.8°C, or 14.8°F, hotter than the average temperature between 1981 and 2011.

The study notes that a rapid drop in shipping-related pollution could be behind some of the most recent warming, since fuel regulations introduced in 2020 by the International Maritime Organization reduced the heat-reflecting aerosol particles in the atmosphere and caused the ocean to absorb more energy.

But that doesn't account for the average global ocean surface temperature rising by 0.9°C from preindustrial levels, with 0.6°C taking place in the last four decades.

The study represents "one of those 'sit up and read very carefully' moments," said former BBC science editor David Shukman.

Lead study author Karina Von Schuckmann of Mercator Ocean International told the BBC that "it's not yet well established, why such a rapid change, and such a huge change is happening."

"We have doubled the heat in the climate system the last 15 years, I don't want to say this is climate change, or natural variability or a mixture of both, we don't know yet," she said. "But we do see this change."

Scientists have consistently warned that the continued burning of fossil fuels by humans is heating the planet, including the oceans. Hotter oceans could lead to further glacial melting—in turn weakening ocean currents that carry warm water across the globe and support the global food chain—as well as intensified hurricanes and tropical storms, ocean acidification, and rising sea levels due to thermal expansion.

A study published earlier this year also found that rising ocean temperatures combined with high levels of salinity lead to the "stratification" of the oceans, and in turn, a loss of oxygen in the water.

"Deoxygenation itself is a nightmare for not only marine life and ecosystems but also for humans and our terrestrial ecosystems," researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in January. "Reducing oceanic diversity and displacing important species can wreak havoc on fishing-dependent communities and their economies, and this can have a ripple effect on the way most people are able to interact with their environment."

The unusual warming trend over recent years has been detected as a strong El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is expected to form in the coming months—a naturally occurring phenomenon that warms oceans and will reverse the cooling impact of La Niña, which has been in effect for the past three years.

"If a new El Niño comes on top of it, we will probably have additional global warming of 0.2-0.25°C," Dr. Josef Ludescher of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research told the BBC.

The world's oceans are a crucial tool in moderating the climate, as they absorb heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases.

Too much warming has led to concerns among scientists that "as more heat goes into the ocean, the waters may be less able to store excess energy," the BBC reported.

The anxiety of climate experts regarding the new findings, said the global climate action movement Extinction Rebellion, drives home the point that "scientists are just people with lives and families who've learnt to understand the implications of data better."

Read more.

[letteredlettered]

We’d all like the rest of your butterfly facts, please.

I have SO MANY; I'm not even sure how to share them all.

Butterflies and moths are not taxonomic or cladistic groups; they're colloquial terms to refer to lepidoptera (the taxonomic order butterflies and moths belong to) that have different characteristics and behaviors. That said:

Moths tend to be nocturnal

Moths tend to have fuzzy bodies, butterflies are sleek

Moths tend to have fuzzy antennae, butterflies just have straight plain ones

The additional fuzz on months allows them to sense what's around them, which is helpful because they're not seeing as much because they're nocturnal

Moths tend to build chrysalises with silk but also leaves and mud, etc. These are known as cocoons. Butterflies only use silk and don't have cocoons (either are known as chrysalis)

The Atlas Moth has the biggest wingspan of any lepidoptera

The Atlas Moth usually emerges from its cocoon without a mouth. It can only breed and die

The Atlas Moth caterpillar lives for months. It's generally in the cocoon for months! But it only lives as an adult moth for a few days (because it can't even eat!)

Inside their chrysalises, caterpillars don't just grow wings and longer legs. They liquify completely and reform.

Caterpillars have six legs called "true legs" that mirror the six legs butterflies have. Then they have additional nubs farther down their bodies that help them move around.

Butterflies taste with their feet. If they land on you, they're tasting you!

Butterflies can only eat liquid. They primarily eat nectar and juice from fruit. Rotten fruit is easier for them because rotten fruit is juicy.

The butterfly mouth is called a proboscis. It curls up when not in use and uncurls when the butterfly eats. It's like a straw.

The word "proboscis" can sometimes refer (as a joke!) to nose, but butterflies can't smell with their proboscis. They smell with their antennae!

Like many insects, butterflies have faceted eyes. But unlike the movies, they probably don't see the same image over and over, because their vision isn't refined enough for that. What faceted eyes allow them to see are big patches of color, which is useful considering they eat fruit and flowers. If you want a butterfly to land on you, wear something colorful.

Butterflies don't have lungs. Like most insects, they breathe through holes in their bodies called spiracles.

Incidentally, this is why insects are so small. If they were giant, these holes would have to be bigger or there would have to be many more of them, and that would mean their exoskeleton was not stable!

Oh, yeah, butterflies do not have bones. Like all insects, they have an exoskeleton.

Butterflies do not have blood. Like all insects, they had a fluid that moves most nutrients through their bodies. It's called hemalymph. It carries hormones, nutrients, and waste. It's blue!

Male butterflies tend to be smaller and more colorful than female butterflies. This is the same style of sexual dimorphism present in most insects. Also in birds!

Male monarch butterflies have distinctive dark spots on the lower wings that female monarch butterflies don't have. The spots are scent glands that help them attract mates.

Most butterflies migrate. Like birds.

Monarch butterflies in North America east of the Rocky Mountains have one of the most impressive migration patterns of any animal. They may travel up to 3,000 miles from Canada to Mexico, but what is most spectacular about it is that almost all of them end up in just a few spots relatively close together on some mountain peaks in Central Mexico. The monarchs are so dense that you can't see the trees.

Butterflies are great for studying evolutionary adaptations in coloration and appearance because they are so striking. Camouflage is the adaptation present when an animal blends in with its surroundings. Mimicry is the adaptation that makes an animal look like a different animal.

The owl butterfly is a great example of mimicry because it has two big owl eyes on its wings. The Atlas moth wing tips look like snake heads.

"Batesian mimicry" is named after Henry Walter Bates, who studied mimicry in butterflies. Batesian mimicry means that one species who is harmless looks like another species that is not harmless. Mullerian mimicry is when several species that are harmful all look like each other, so the warning to predators is stronger. Butterflies have great examples of both types of mimicry.

Monarch butterflies and viceroy butterflies were once thought to exhibit Batesian mimicry, because it was thought that vicroys weren't toxic, but it turns out both butterflies are poisonous and so the species have evolved to mimic each other in an example of Mullerian mimicry.

Monarch butterflies are poisonous because the milkweed caterpillars eat is poisonous

The best way to attract butterflies is to grow native plants.

[todropscience]

FUTURE OCEAN CONDITIONS INDUCE NECROSIS IN REEF SPONGES

Oceans are rapidly warming and acidifying in the context of climate change, threatening sensitive marine biota including coral reef sponges, oceans more acids and hot can can impact host health and associated microbiome. Now, australian scientists have found when areef sponge is exposed to a 3 °C increase in seawater temperature, as is expected in the future, the sponge loses an important microbe, which could explain why sponge tissue dies.

Marine sponges are highly diverse, filter-feeding benthic animals, which play essential roles in the ocean, such as providing shelter and home to other animals, they collect bacteria, and process carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus.  Thse microbe partners play key roles that contribute to host health and survival of the sponge, including energy provision to the host, waste removal, amino acid and secondary metabolite production and chemical defence.

-  A healthy reef sponge (left) versus a necrotic one (right) in the lab conditions. Credit: Holly Bennett

The symbiosis between the reef sponge and its microbes is weak to warm oceans, and may not be stronge to the high temperatures that are predicted to become averages by the end of the century.

Photo by David Gúmera

Reference (Open Access): Botté et al.2023 Future ocean conditions induce necrosis, microbial dysbiosis and nutrient cycling imbalance in the reef sponge Stylissa flabelliformis. ISME COMMUN.

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Industrial civilisation is close to breaching a seventh planetary boundary, and may already have crossed it, according to scientists who have compiled the latest report on the state of the world’s life-support systems.

“Ocean acidification is approaching a critical threshold”, particularly in higher-latitude regions, says the latest report on planetary boundaries. “The growing acidification poses an increasing threat to marine ecosystems.”

The report, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), builds on years of research showing there are nine systems and processes – the planetary boundaries – that contribute to the stability of the planet’s life-support functions.

Thresholds beyond which they can no longer properly function have already been breached in six. Climate change, the introduction of novel entities, change in biosphere integrity and modification of biogeochemical flows are judged to be in high-risk zones, while planetary boundaries are also transgressed in land system change and freshwater change but to a lesser extent. All have worsened, according to the data.

Stratospheric ozone depletion has remained stable, however, and there has been a slight improvement in atmospheric aerosol loading, the research says.

Ocean acidification was getting worse globally, with the effects most pronounced in the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean, she added.

Ocean acidification is the phenomenon of increasing acidity (decreasing pH) in ocean water due to the absorption of atmospheric CO2. The process not only harms calcifying organisms, potentially leading to food web breakdown, but also reduces the ocean’s efficiency in acting as a vital carbon sink.

“This illustrates the connection between ocean acidification … and biosphere integrity,” Caesar said. “Indeed, one of the main messages of our report is that all nine planetary boundaries are highly interconnected.

“This means that any human perturbation of the global environment that we observe at the moment … cannot be addressed as if they were separate issues, which is how it is at the moment primarily handled. Because this type of approach ignores that the components of the Earth system constantly interact forming a large network where changes in one area affect the others.”

Planetary boundary science was pioneered in 2009 by Johan Rockstrom, the director of the PIK, and others. In that research and two subsequent reports, the researchers identified and quantified boundaries relating to climate change, biosphere, land system change, freshwater change, biogeochemical flows, ocean acidification, atmospheric aerosol loading, ozone layer depletion and the introduction of novel entities, such as synthetic chemicals, to the environment.

The transgression of boundaries in each of those areas risks disrupting the stability, resilience and liveability of the state of the planet that has persisted for the past 12,000 years and that has allowed the rise of complex human civilisation.

[thoughtlessarse]

The carbonate compensation depth — a zone where high pressure and low temperature creates conditions so acidic it dissolves shell and skeleton — could make up half of the global ocean by the end of the century. In the deepest parts of the ocean, below 13,100 feet (4,000 metres), the combination of high pressure and low temperature creates conditions that dissolve calcium carbonate, the material marine animals use to make their shells. This zone is known as the carbonate compensation depth — and it is expanding. This contrasts with the widely discussed ocean acidification of surface waters due to the ocean absorbing carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. But the two are linked: because of rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the ocean, its pH is decreasing (becoming more acidic), and the deep-sea area in which calcium carbonate dissolves is growing, from the seafloor up. The transition zone within which calcium carbonate increasingly becomes chemically unstable and begins to dissolve is called the lysocline. Because the ocean seabed is relatively flat, even a rise of the lysocline by a few metres can rapidly lead to large under-saturated (acidic) areas. -Our research showed this zone has already risen by nearly 100 metres since pre-industrial times and will likely rise further by several hundreds of metres this century. Millions of square kilometres of ocean floor will potentially undergo a rapid transition whereby calcareous sediment will become chemically unstable and dissolve.

continue reading

[nando161mando]

World's Oceans CLOSE to Becoming Too Acidic to Sustain Marine Life

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240923-world-s-oceans-near-critical-acidification-level-report

[teddyyyoriginalll]

Ocean Acidification

Ocean Acidification threatens the whole foundation of the ocean food chain. Shells of marine life gradually dissolve away, leaving those animals spending more energy on building shells than on finding food, which makes it harder for them to grow and survive and the predators that eat them will struggle to survive as well.

Ocean Acidification threatens coral reefs due to climate change. An increase in greenhouse gasses causes climate change and ocean acidification, and a change in the climate causes a change in the ocean. When the ocean is warmed, sea levels rise and storm patterns change which smothers the coral reef and destroys its structure. Eventually, changes in precipitation will increase freshwater, sediment, and land-based pollutants like fertilizer and other nutrients, to runoff into the ocean and increase algal bloom and murky up the water, which reduces the amount of light able to pass though. Ocean currents altar, and the changes in connectivity and temperature cause a lack of food. Finally, pH levels will reduce and growth and structural integrity will decrease.

Ocean Acidification affects the temperature of the ocean by warming it. Zooxanthellae are compounds made by coral polyps, creatures making up coral that receive shelter. They turn sunlight into energy, which they provide mostly to polyps. Coral and zooxanthellae are temperature specific, and if it gets too warm zooxanthellae cannot convert sunlight to energy efficiently, leaving extra energy which becomes toxic chemicals. Those toxic chemicals remove zooxanthellae. When they are all gone the coral turns white, coral bleaching. If these zooxanthellae are missing for too long the coral structure will become a wasteland.

One way we can decrease ocean acidification is by shrinking carbon footprint. This means reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses we produce. Some ways we can do this is by driving less, burning less fuels that we pollute our atmosphere with. We can also use energy efficient appliances and reserve water and trees.

Another way we can reduce pollution is reusing and recycling. Factories run to produce more and more plastics and other nonbiodegradable things. While our factories run they release greenhouse gasses and smoke. The things we produce get thrown into wastelands rather than be used again, and this pollution harms a variety of life. We can also reduce harmful chemicals we use, like chemicals we spray outside to kill bugs and pests. People also consume lots of non sustainable animals, which leads to an endangerment of species, and we already have a large enough food waste rate. We should consume animals that we have more of that can sustain reproduction and life well.

Humans are constantly burning fossil fuels when simply participating in daily activities. Driving, throwing away trash, killing/consuming animals, using paper and water, working in an industrial setting, tending to farms and livestock, use of electricity and nonrenewable energy, all cause pollution. The pollution caused leads to climate change by the carbon dioxide emission, which is the source of ocean acidification. Climate change warms the ocean and takes up less carbon, and our marine life consumes these carbonate ion molecules. But when carbonate ions react with water it releases hydrogen ions, which makes the ocean more acidic and slowly dissolves life.

just a lil smth for school :) AWARENESS!!!

[reasonsforhope]

“Kelp is a large, fast-growing brown seaweed that sequesters carbon and harmful pollutants. It’s also full of nutrients and is used in foods, pharmaceuticals and fertilizers — making it a big business.

The global commercial seaweed market is valued at around $15 billion and is projected to reach $25 billion by 2028. In the United States, the kelp market is expected to quadruple by 2035, according to the Island Institute.

For the estimated 800 residents of the Shinnecock Reservation, where [Tela] Troge said some families live on just $6,000 a year, kelp farming could be an economic lifeline. On one side of Shinnecock Hills, “you have billionaire’s row where some of the wealthiest people in America have homes,” Troge said. “Then, on the other side, you have Shinnecock territory, where 60 percent of us are living in complete poverty.”

In 2019, Troge, an attorney who has represented the Shinnecock Nation in federal land rights cases, was looking for a way to create jobs and clean up Shinnecock Bay. That’s when GreenWave, a nonprofit that promotes regenerative ocean farming, approached the community about starting a kelp hatchery.

Troge and five other women from her community formed the Shinnecock Kelp Farm, the first Indigenous-run farm of its kind on the East Coast...

Kelp forests promote biodiversity, lessen ocean acidification and remove dissolved carbon dioxide from the water. One meta-analysis by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that, on average, these farms remove 575 pounds of nitrogen per acre... Seaweed aquaculture could absorb nearly 240 million tons by 2050, equal to the annual emissions from more than 50 million fossil fuel–powered cars, according to a 2021 study published in Nature...

The farm is already cleaning up the area, Hopson Begun said; since operations began she said the water appears clearer and more birds fly overhead.” -via Nexus Media News, 11/15/22

[possesseddog]

i spent way too long on this meme that none of my mutuals will get and i just realized i spelled acidification wrong. i am not changing it.

[larimar]

davidsuzukifdn

Just one more reason to switch to 100% renewables. We're on the brink of a massive win for renewables in Canada 

[zenaidamacrouras1]

Yesterday my kids went to Paleo camp (? It was an option and I needed childcare) and learned about the impacts of the asteroid hitting and I was talking about how the subsequent ocean acidification caused the base level of life in the ocean (foraminifera) to all die and that created a chain reaction of mass ocean death.

And my son said "But an asteroid isn't going to hit our planet again right?" (Great fear)

And daughter said "no because scientists watch for asteroids and are learning how to push them away with rockets"

And I said, "yeah an asteroid isn't a problem but we still might have that chain reaction of near complete ocean death because of ocean acidification due to global warming because the lower critters on the ocean food chain have carbon shells which dissolve in acid like if you put an egg in vinegar. That's probably going to happen in your lifetime. I don't know why scientists are worried about asteroids."

And then they blinked at me in horror, and then my son asked where tar pits come from and if he needs to worry about getting stuck in one.

[caterpillarinacave]

It genuinely baffles me how a person can “not believe” in climate change.

[indizombie]

More than half of the total amount of oxygen in our atmosphere is created by creatures in the ocean. At the same time, oceans store 50 times more carbon dioxide than what's currently found in our atmosphere. The warmer the ocean gets, the less CO2 it can store. It's a vicious cycle: the warmer it gets, the less our oceans can protect the planet from even more extreme weather events. If temperatures keep increasing at their current speed, scientists believe many shellfish such as mussels and snails will not survive. That's due to ocean acidification: if the CO2 content in the seawater increases, the PH level in the water changes. The increasing acidity hampers the creation of the chalky shells of the animals. This throws entire biospheres off-balance, and could threaten entire economic sectors, such as the breeding of oysters and mussels. The rising temperatures in the atmosphere triggered by the burning of coal, oil and gas also change ocean currents as the water gets warmer. This can already mean death for many creatures, such as corals. Corals live in symbiosis with colorful algae which help feed them. The warming of the water can lead to algae death, which means more stress for corals, leading to many losing their color, which is also known as coral bleaching.

Tim Schauenberg, ‘How to save our high seas from overfishing, pollution���, BBC