Science Source
Detecting regional anthropogenic trends in ocean acidification against natural variability
- States that about 30 percent of the ~500 billion metric tons of carbon released to the atmosphere through fossil fuel burning, cement production and land use has been taken up by the oceans
- States that the oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide leads to changes in marine carbonate chemistry resulting in a decrease of seawater pH and carbonate ion concentration, commonly referred to as ocean acidification
- States that ocean observations are severely limited with respect to providing reliable estimates of the signal-to-noise ratio of human-induced trends in carbonate chemistry against natural factors
- Uses three Earth system models to show that the current anthropogenic trend in ocean acidification already exceeds the level of natural variability by up to 30 times on regional scales
- Demonstrates that the current rates of ocean acidification at monitoring sites in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans exceed those experienced during the last glacial termination by two orders of magnitude
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