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posted by martyb on Monday April 03 2017, @02:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the chilling-news dept.

NOAA, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reports [*] on the discovery, published in Nature Climate Change (full article is pay-walled):

[...] that between the 1990s and 2010, acidified waters expanded northward approximately 300 nautical miles from the Chukchi Sea slope off the coast of northwestern Alaska to just below the North Pole. Also, the depth of acidified waters increased from approximately 325 feet below the surface to more than 800 feet.

The United Nations Development Programme explains that

[...] since gases such as CO2 dissolve more readily in colder water, ocean acidification will progress – already is progressing – much more rapidly in the Arctic and Antarctic, where a number of species are already facing challenges in fixing their shells. Under a lower pH ocean future, increasing numbers of calcium carbonate fixing organisms could face dramatic losses or even extinction.

[*] (archive link 1, archive link 2)

Additional coverage:


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by kaszz on Monday April 03 2017, @05:02PM

    by kaszz (4211) on Monday April 03 2017, @05:02PM (#488266) Journal

    *) At what pH will fish in the big oceans of the Pacific and Atlantic substantially diminish as a source for food? and when is it projected to get to that level?

    *) At what pH will the seas be saturated as to not absorbing any significant amount of CO2? and any projection on when that happens?

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