This is an action project for my core class, Frontiers. This is an action project about oceans and how they are being affected right now. For this unit, we learned about oceans as a whole and the problems that are affecting them. One of the main problems we learned about is how ocean acidification is affecting them right now. We were each tasked with coming up with a guiding question to answer. I came up with the question "how can ocean acidification cause a mass life extinction?" In order to answer this question, I had to do primary and secondary research. For the primary research, I reached out to an FE guest Phil Nicodemus, about how rivers are affected and I got his personal insight and information about ocean acidification. Phil is someone who works with Urban Rivers to reinvent the Chicago river for the better. They put plants into the water in order to revive the water. He was able to give me valuable information on how the oceans are being affected right now and also how we can solve them. For my secondary research, I looked at many different articles that had good information on this issue. I took all of the information I had and put it into a research paper that tells people about how we can solve the problem of the rise of pH levels.
Right now the world is set to end in about 4 billion years. The increase in Earth's surface temperature will cause a runaway greenhouse effect, creating conditions more extreme than present-day Venus and heating Earth's surface enough to melt it. By then, all life on Earth will become extinct. But, there are many things that are speeding up the end of the world and its ecosystems. For example, the ice caps are melting, the world is heating up, there has been an increase in dead zones, and there are many other problems that are forcing the world to continue to fall into darkness. One of those main threats to the planet is the increase of Ocean Acidification all over the world. But what is ocean acidification? Why is it happening, how is it affecting marine life, and how can it cause mass life extinction?
Ocean Acidification has been an issue for millions of years, but only recently has it been a big enough problem that has caused scientists to notice and start focusing on a way to solve this. According to TheGuardian.com, “If 0.25 was enough to precipitate a mass extinction, we should be worried. Researchers estimate that the pH of the ocean will drop by 0.4 pH units by the end of this century if carbon emissions are not stopped, or by 0.15 units if global temperature rise is limited to 2C.” For those who don't know what pH is; pH is the amount of acidity in the water. Even the smallest amount of increased acidity can affect the entire biology of the water. According to an interview with Phil Nicodemus, ocean acidification can affect every organism in the ocean. He says, “Acidification is bad news for most aquatic organisms. pH changes do happen, but rarely so quickly (on an evolutionary timeline) and this creates problems for many, many different types of plants, animals, microbes, etc.” It especially affects the amount of coral and organisms that live with shells. Acidification slowly breaks down the shells and causes them to die because of the level of acidity.
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| Ocean Acidification Graph/Anthropocene/2015 |
Just how likely is it for there to be a mass extinction? According to researchers and scientists, it is very likely. Right now the pH levels of the ocean are at around 8.1. It should be at about 7 as that is the most neutral amount of pH in water. Below is a graph of how much pH should be in the water. If the pH in the ocean gets too high, it could kill many organisms and life in the ocean. In the scale below, if the pH gets even 2 points higher, it will be at the level of baking soda. Shelled organisms are being affected, by their bones and shells being disintegrated, and are more susceptible to death because of the increase in pH. If it gets high enough it could completely wipe out an entire ecosystem of plants and animals. So, yes the rise of pH levels could cause a mass life extinction.
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| PH Scale/Water Science School/2019 |
So what should our number 1 priority be for combating ocean acidification? Carbon emissions are the number one cause of acidification in the ocean. The emissions get sent into the ocean where the carbon dioxide gets absorbed into the water. If carbon emissions are the main cause of ocean acidification, then they should be targeted and eliminated. According to Nicodemus, “The largest driver of imbalanced acidification in our context is the production of CO2 and other gas emissions in the form of air pollution. Reducing these sources of air pollution should be the top priority, as well as increasing the amount of research that is being dedicated to the study of the ecological impacts of this increased acidity.” More research needs to be done in order to effectively combat ocean acidification. Another great way to help combat this problem is to eliminate carbon emissions and replace them with renewable energy. Nicodemus says, “By electrifying industry and making sure that electricity is generated by clean energy (wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, nuclear, etc.) we can most directly prevent a number of very negative global impacts from accelerating beyond our control.”
How does ocean acidification affect marine life? As stated, acidification causes the shells of organisms to meltdown and disintegrate. But it doesn’t just affect the shelled organisms, it also affects any living organism whose bone structure is made of calcium carbonate, by breaking down and disintegrating them. Organisms that are affected by this disintegration, either have to spend most of their energy either regrowing the bones or thickening them to survive. This could impact the animals’ growth and ability to reproduce. They are also more likely to become smaller, which would in turn affect the food chain and the animals that rely on them.
Geo-Engineering has been a proposed solution to this problem, yet some of the solutions aren’t as practical as some would think. For example, there is the idea to fill the earth’s atmosphere with chemicals to get rid of carbon dioxide. There are also some that propose a good solution. Like, adding more kelp and seaweed to the ocean. Plants in the ocean are known to consume carbon dioxide and actually thrive off of it. If we were to fill the ocean with plants, it would greatly combat the amount of carbon in the water and lower the acidity of the ocean.
This was a fun AP. I was able to learn many new things about the ocean and how I can help stop the rise of pH levels. If I could go back, I would want to do some more research on how to save the ocean and also better solutions that include Geo-Engineering. If I could change one thing, I would change how I spaced out the research. Overall, this was a good AP and I am proud of how it turned out.
Works Cited:
Carrington, D. (2021, August 25). Ocean acidification can cause mass extinctions, fossils reveal. The Guardian. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/21/ocean-acidification-can-cause-mass-extinctions-fossils-reveal#:%7E:text=The%20oceans%20acidified%20because%20the,CO2%20in%20the%20atmosphere.
Natural History Museum. (2019). How does ocean acidification affect marine life? | Natural History Museum. Retrieved April 24, 2022, from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/quick-questions/how-does-ocean-acidification-affect-marine-life.html#:%7E:text=Ocean%20acidification%20can%20negatively%20affect,the%20faster%20the%20shells%20dissolve.
Nicodemus, Phil. Interview. Conducted by CJH. Apr 22, 2022.
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