Unit 4: Ocean Acidification Flashcards
Ocean acidification is the decrease in what of oceans?
pH
What is ocean acidification primarily caused by?
Increased CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.
pH
Measure of the hydrogen ion concentration.
Lower pH = ______ acidic
More
Increased CO2 is caused by
Cars which cause an increase in fossil fuels, deforestation which removes trees that take in CO2, factories which burn fossil fuels.
Anthropogenic causes of ocean acidification
Anything that increases CO2.
The ocean is increasing in ___________ and decreasing in ___________.
Temperature, pH
Relating to scale, pH is what?
Logarithmic
Why is ocean acidification harmful to coral and other shelled organisms like pteropods?
It pushes them outside of their range of tolerance (which causes increased metabolic rates and stress), and their shells break down and can’t form.
Why is ocean acidification decreasing the ability of organism’s shells to form harmful to humans?
Impacts the food chain and the shelled organisms we eat.
Marine organisms need what to form shells?
Carbonate, which is decreasing because of increased acidity.
As the atmospheric CO2 _________, the oceanic CO2 __________. As that __________, the pH ___________. The CO2 absorbed by the water results in the formation of _________.
Increases, increases, increases, decreases, carbonic acid.
Ocean acidification is from __________ ______(from carbonic acid).
Hydrogen ions.
