Rebecca Dolan/MNS
Ocean acidification affects the growth and reproduction of marine life, which can hurt business that rely on fisheries. At a fresh fish market in Washington, a worker ices down the day’s catch.
WASHINGTON—There’s a looming threat to our oceans – and it’s not from an oil spill or melting ice caps.
The administration has identified ocean acidification as a priority.
The under-covered threat surfaced last month when President Barack Obama signed an executive order that adopted the final recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force. The group put ocean acidification high on its list of looming environmental issues for waterways.
In simple terms, ocean acidification is the absorption by the ocean of increased amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere that leads to a decrease in the water’s pH level.
Ocean policy extends beyond acidification
Ocean acidification isn’t the only item on the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force’s agenda. In its final recommendations, the group identified nine national policy objectives:
• Ecosystem-Based Management– Traditionally, management honed in individual species, resources or areas. This new approach will look at the bigger picture by integrating the human aspect, as well as ecological, social, economic, and security goals.
• Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning– Areas most suitable for different types of activities will be identified in order to reduce environmental impacts and preserve ecosystem services among other goals.
• Inform Decisions and Improve Understanding– The increase in scientific knowledge will be used to strengthen management and policy making. Also, the public will be educated through informal programs.
• Resiliency and Adaptation to Climate Change and Ocean Acidification– Strengthening the abilities of coastal communities and aquatic environments to adapt to the impacts of climate change will be a focus.
• Regional Ecosystem Protection and Restoration– A strategy for this will be science-based and combine conservation and restoration goals at the Federal, State, tribal, local, and regional levels.
• Water Quality and Sustainable Practices on Land– By promoting sustainable practices on land, water quality would be enhanced.
• Changing Conditions in the Arctic– The specific needs of the arctic environment in the face of climate change will be addressed.
• Ocean, Coastal, and Great Lakes Observations, Mapping, and Infrastructure– Federal and non-Federal ocean observing systems and data collection will be integrated nationally. That system will then be joined with international observation efforts.
The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force was created by President Barack Obama in June 2009. The purpose was to develop recommendations to promote stewardship and conservation of the nation’s oceans and waterways.
Earlier this summer, the president released an executive order adopting the recommendations of the task force and establishing a National Ocean Council to guide their implementation.
Not surprisingly, this was a welcome move for environmental advocates.
“We are very pleased to see this come out,” said Beth Lowell, federal policy director at Oceana “It has been a long road.”
One noteworthy aspect of the action is how it will bring more unified oversight to policy regarding oceans and waterways. Where it was once fractured, the pieces are starting to come together, said Tom Lalley, oceans communications director at the Environmental Defense Fund.
Lowell added that she thinks this process will lead the U.S. down a path of better decision-making about waterways because the oceans will now have a seat at the table.
The full impact of this remains in the hands of policymakers.
“From a legal perspective there is relatively little new in it,” said Richard Hildreth, law professor and director of the University of Oregon Ocean and Coastal Law Center. “It will be interesting to see whether relevant congressional committees pick up on the recommendations and put them into law.”
Indeed, the task force proposals point out that the priority objectives do not specifically lay out how they will be executed. That will be up to the appropriate authorities.
Hildreth said the impacts of climate change recognized in the report are important and might provide more momentum for the necessary statutory and regulatory changes.
— Rebecca Dolan, MNS
For those who forgot high school chemistry, the pH scale is a measure of how acidic or basic a substance is on a scale of 0 to 14. A neutral substance, like pure water, has a pH of 7. Battery acid has a pH of 0, while liquid drain cleaner has a pH of 14.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the pH of the world’s oceans was 8.2, said Richard Feely, a senior research scientist with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. Since the 18th Century, the pH has dipped to 8.1 and the best predictions say oceans could reach a pH of 7.9 by the end of the century. That doesn’t bode well for marine life.
Think about it in human terms. We have a highly controlled pH of somewhere between 7.35 and 7.45. If the human body’s pH decreased .2 units, it would go into a coma. So imagine what could happen to all the marine organisms that are less resilient than humans.
What we do know is the shellfish community on west coast is already suffering. In some areas where Pacific oysters live, the water pH is as low as 7.7. Their larvae are finding it difficult to survive because they don’t get to the point where their shells can fully form. It’s causing an impact to the point where there has been a decrease in production over the last five years, said Feely.
This gives rise to another major concern stemming from ocean acidification: a decrease of carbonate ions in the water. These ions are necessary for the production of shells in creatures like crabs and oysters.
“What is known from observing individual species is that it looks like bivalves are most susceptible to the carbonate ion decrease,” said Sarah Cooley, a postdoctoral investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.
This can lead to a number of problems for aquatic life—many are chain reactions.
First, low carbonate ion levels affect bivalve development, often causing them to have smaller and weaker shells. Smaller and weaker shells make bivalves more susceptible to predators. That susceptibility leads to decreased production of mollusks in general. In the broader case of mollusks, fish eat their larvae. If there is decreased production, there is less for the fish to eat and that could affect the whole food chain.
At the top of the food chain, human seafood consumption might ultimately be affected. According to Feely, 20 percent of our protein resources come from the sea, with many, such as island nations particularly dependent.
Twenty-five percent of fish spend part of their lives in a coral reef ecosystem. If they are lost, so are many of the fish that depend on that system for survival, Feely said.
According to a report of the World Resources Institute, Reefs at Risk in the Caribbean, fisheries in Caribbean coral reefs account for US$310 million annually. Damage to these resources could cause a $95 million decrease in revenue by 2015.
Like bivalves, corals also affected by the decrease in carbonate ions.
“With corals, the research has shown that almost every species shows a decrease in calcification rate with an increase in carbon dioxide levels,” said Feely.
Aside from being home to a multitude of organisms that support businesses and provide food, coral reef ecosystems protect coastal areas. Specifically coral reef structures shield coastlines from severe storms by causing waves to break farther from land. If that structure breaks down, then storms could have a more devastating effect.
Cooley cites the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Areas that were not protected by coral reefs were harder hit.
Feely points out that ocean acidification is a global-scale problem and the only way to properly address the issue is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions dramatically—80 percent by 2050.
Cooley agrees that carbon dioxide emissions need to be cut, but to totally fix the problem is not feasible. She said she only way to get the ocean back to its original pH would be to roll back atmospheric carbon dioxide to pre-Industrial levels.
She suggests addressing other smaller problems like fertilizer runoff and proper fishing management. If the ocean is going to have to take one for the team, tackling the stresses we know we can conquer means less for the ocean to have to overcome.