According to the scientists of University of Chicago oceans are ore prone contamination and thus threatening heightened damage to coral reefs and shellfish. The scientists took more than 24,000 pH measurements over eight years and found the rate at which the ocean is becoming more acidic correlates with the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, or CO2, the university said in a statement.
The result shows that when CO2, which helps cause global warming, dissolves in water, it forms carbonic acid. University of Chicago ecology and evolution professor Timothy Wootton said that the acidity increased more than 10 times faster than had been predicted by climate change models and other studies. He added that such speed up of acid will have a severe impact on marine food webs and suggests that ocean acidification may be a more urgent issue than previously thought.
It is consider that the faster acidifying of oceans pointing to the degradation of the world’s oceans. Researcher said that the study documented that the number of mussels and stalked barnacles fell as acidity increased. Oceana, a Washington-based conservation group, said coral reefs in the cold deep seas off Alaska may now be among the first victims of global warming in a marine environment that’s home to half of the U.S.’s commercial fishing.
