Ocean Acidification - The Other Carbon Dioxide Problem

Context for Use: 

This video contains closed captioning and some excellent images that will help students visualize the impacts of ocean acidification on organisms, such as pteropods, and the chemistry behind ocean acidification. The video also includes information on how scientists collect the data and are able to document the shell mineral availability in the ocean. This video is useful to show at the beginning of a unit on ocean acidification, as a component on issues/challenges faced in/by our oceans, or during a discussion on the impacts of increasing CO2 levels. 

Additional videos on ocean acidification exist, such as NRDC's documentary Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification (21 min), Pew's What Is Ocean Acidification? | A Cartoon Crash Course (2 min), and the California Academy of Science's Demystifying ocean acidification and biodiversity impacts (12 min). Rob Dunbar's TED Talk addresses ocean acidification by Discovering ancient climates in oceans and ice (18 min).

 

Submitted 7 years 10 months ago by Laura Guertin.
Recommended Grade: 
Middle School
High School
Description: 

From NOAA Visualizations - Fundamental changes in seawater chemistry are occurring throughout the world's oceans. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) from humankind's industrial and agricultural activities has increased the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The ocean absorbs almost a third of the CO2 we release into the atmosphere every year, so as atmospheric CO2 levels increase, so do the levels in the ocean. Initially, many scientists focused on the benefits of the ocean removing this greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. However, decades of ocean observations now show that there is also a downside — the CO2 absorbed by the ocean is changing the chemistry of the seawater, a process called ocean acidification. This change in the ocean's chemistry will have profound effects on life in the ocean, and those who depend on it.

This video is four minutes in length.

 

anthrosphere - humans
biosphere - life
hydrosphere - water