I wondered how many of you have heard of the changing pH that has been reported in areas of the oceans. If you are not familiar with the term pH, it is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ion concentration (if I remember my chemistry correctly it is the negative log of the H+ concentration ) with values of 7 or less considered acidic and 7 to 14 a measure of how basic a solution is. But enough of that as I have probably not described this exactly. Your blood will have a pH of 7.35 to 7.45 with values above this or below this being a sign that will have any doctor wanting to find out what is wrong STAT. OK what I am getting at is that living systems are very sensitive to the pH of the solution they are living in. All living things have evolved to live in a pretty constant state of pH. The oceans have had a pretty stable pH for a very long time. I am not going to get into buffering systems but they will allow some leeway as they resist large changes in pH, but have their limits. We are now seeing that our huge output of carbon dioxide may now have overwhelmed the ability of the natural systems to buffer the carbonic acid that is formed when CO2 dissolves in water. The most basic part of the food chain the diatoms and phytoplankton make shells of silicates or carbonates. This ability to make these structures determine whether they live or die. If they fail the animals that eat them fail as do the animals that depend on them and on up the chain. Rising pH means that they cannot make the structures they need for survival. Kind of like what would happen if all the plants (crops,grasses etc) failed. What does this have to do with you or I. The simple answer is if the oceans die. We die period. This post is not complete it is just a starter kit to foster thought and discussion. I just want you to either get mad enough to try to prove me wrong or to simply look up the research. It's
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I look forward to further writing from you, Roy, feel encouraged to post at my groups.
If we are determined to kill off the land and sea life what do we think their will be left for our own survival?
"If acidification continues unabated, the impairment of sensory ability will reduce population sustainability of many marine species, with potentially profound consequences for marine diversity," wrote researchers led by marine biologists Philip Munday and Kjell Døving.
Their study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was prompted by the rapidly rising acidity of Earth's oceans — the most pressing of a battery of climate- and development-driven oceanic threats, from rising temperatures to nitrogen pollution and spreading dead zones
Growing Acidity of Oceans May Kill Corals
LIVEJOURNAL
Brings to mind the old saying goes in one ear and out the other.
I am sure you have heard of the amphibians disappearing here in the northwest?
It makes one think, what kind of hideous creatures will evolve from this earth? American might be able to change, but what about the rest of world?
This too is why bill gates put HUGE amounts of money into the biggest seed bank in the world, so hopefully we can still grow altered free food if the world needs too.
Nature is what it is and will win in this battle of power, the earth will shake us off as a dog shakes water off in order to save herself.