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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:
- The Canadian Press via the Toronto Star
- The Canadian Press via the Chronicle Herald (identical to story in Toronto Star)
- Eurekalert
- University of Delaware UDaily
- Tech Times
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday April 04 2017, @11:12AM
I would think we are not "diluting" the buffered solution by adding distilled water to it. The ratio of H+ and OH- remain the same.
Rather, it seems to me we are adding carbonic acid ( CO2+H20 -> H2CO3 ) into the fray.
This is not dilution. It is contamination.
This article makes me recall my own experiment trying to make a bellyache remedy by carbonating milk of magnesia ( magnesium hydroxide ) to form magnesium bicarbonate. I often take sodium bicarbonate for bellyache, but I am trying to cut back on sodium and was curious if magnesium would make a good remedy.
I had filled a 2.5 Liter sodapop bottle with 2 Deg C water and magnesium hydroxide, hooked up 75PSIG CO2 through a tire valve mounted in the cap of the soda bottle, and shook the contents, and noted the gas streaming into the bottle, as the bottle's contents became less and less cloudy as the magnesium hydroxide dissolved.
The experiment was a failure. I got magnesium bicarbonate. However, the magnesium bicarbonate made a really poor upset tummy remedy.
Tasted terrible, as well as gave me the runs.
But it did teach me just how fast the solution would absorb CO2, and about how fast to expect the reaction to occur.
My reaction took place in minutes.
But the situation at the poles, while similar, is nowhere near as extreme as I was creating.
For one thing, the polar region is not 100% CO2 as I was using, nor is it 75PSIG either.
But it was in equilibrium at the previous concentration of CO2. And it will regain equilibrium at the new higher levels of CO2. And be a bit more acidic.
Not much different than how I make sodapop.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]