{"id":33897,"date":"2025-02-10T07:13:56","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T06:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/?p=33897"},"modified":"2025-02-10T07:14:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T06:14:30","slug":"explanation-of-the-relationship-between-increasing-levels-of-co%e2%82%82-in-the-atmosphere-and-ocean-acidification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/2025\/02\/10\/explanation-of-the-relationship-between-increasing-levels-of-co%e2%82%82-in-the-atmosphere-and-ocean-acidification\/","title":{"rendered":"Explaining the relationship between increasing levels of CO\u2082 in the atmosphere and ocean acidification."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Increasing levels of CO\u2082 in the atmosphere are leading to ocean acidification. The oceans absorb significant amounts of CO\u2082 from the atmosphere. When CO\u2082 dissolves in seawater, chemical reactions occur that lower the pH of the ocean, making it more acidic.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the main points that explain this relationship:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dissolving CO\u2082<\/strong>: Atmospheric CO\u2082 dissolves in the surface waters of the ocean.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Carbonic acid formation<\/strong>: Dissolved CO\u2082 reacts with water to form carbonic acid (H\u2082CO\u2083).\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dissociation<\/strong>: Carbonic acid dissociates into bicarbonate ions (HCO\u2083-) and hydrogen ions (H+).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increased acidity<\/strong>: Increasing the concentration of hydrogen ions lowers the pH of the ocean, increasing its acidity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The overall reaction can be represented by the equation: 2KOH+CO\u2082 \u2192 H\u2082O+K\u2082CO\u2083<\/p>\n<p>This process has several important consequences:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Decrease in carbonate ion concentration<\/strong>: Increasing acidity reduces the concentration of carbonate ions (CO\u2083\u00b2-), which are important for marine organisms such as coral reefs and mollusks, which need them to build their shells and skeletons.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Threat to marine ecosystems<\/strong>: Ocean acidification can have negative impacts on marine ecosystems, including slowing coral growth, disrupting food chains, and threatening biodiversity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>CO\u2082 absorption<\/strong>: The ocean&#039;s ability to absorb CO\u2082 from the atmosphere decreases as acidity increases, which may lead to an even faster increase in atmospheric CO\u2082 and intensify climate change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The pH of ocean surface waters has dropped from about 8.1 to 8.05 over the past 30 years. Although this change seems small, it actually represents an increase in hydrogen ion concentration of 20 to 35 parts per million, which has a significant impact on the marine environment. <em><strong>Spring<\/strong><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Increasing levels of CO\u2082 in the atmosphere are leading to ocean acidification. The oceans absorb significant amounts of CO\u2082 from the atmosphere. When CO\u2082 dissolves in seawater, chemical reactions occur that lead to a decrease in the pH of the ocean, which means an increase in its acidity. Here are the main points that explain this relationship: Dissolution of CO\u2082: Atmospheric CO\u2082 dissolves in surface waters [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-klimaticka-zmena"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.co2news.sk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}