June 25, 2025

Taryn Han 

11th Grade

Fountain Valley High School 

From the excess intake of carbon dioxide that is absorbed from the atmosphere, ocean acidification occurs with high acidity. Similar to global warming, this change in the atmosphere can cause great damage to the ecosystems and the health of humans. Not only do the increasing levels of carbon dioxide negatively impact the Earth’s atmosphere, but the sea life in the ocean is in great danger.

Ocean acidification is the ongoing dissolution process of atmospheric carbon dioxide and water, producing carbonic acid. In a real-life perspective, when an excess amount of carbon dioxide from the air comes into contact with a body of water, ocean acidification takes place. Furthermore, in the chemistry breakdown of how acidification occurs, the partial dissociation of carbonic acid must transpire due to its weak acidity into hydrogen ions and bicarbonate ions. This dissociation causes an increased concentration of hydrogen ions to be released into the ocean water, which decreases the pH and becomes closer to acidity. 

Before the Industrial Revolution, the exchange of carbon dioxide, CO2, between the surface of the ocean remained constant. Though with the widespread anthropogenic activities of burning fossil fuels, carbon dioxide has risen since then. For example, a daily factor that raises carbon dioxide levels is the use of gas-powered vehicles for transportation. Each pound of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by gas vehicles still accounts for the effects of ocean acidification. While the Earth’s ocean absorbs approximately 30% of human-induced CO2 emissions, about 0.30 pounds of carbon dioxide is absorbed into the ocean. Even though this may appear as the slightest damage to the environment, the cumulative effect of gallons of gasoline per vehicle for each car owner worldwide is substantial. In fact, in the United States alone, Americans use about 135.73 billion gallons of gasoline each year! With the daily release of carbon dioxide decreasing the global oceanic pH, the danger to the food web in sea life has increased.

Over the course of the years, the advancement of ocean acidification has continuously contributed to the damage to the food web in marine life. As a food web is an interdependent connection of multiple food chains, the quaternary consumers or apex predators depend on the organisms below. The food web involves a system of food chains that feed on each other: the quaternary consumers feed on tertiary consumers, tertiary consumers feed on secondary consumers, secondary consumers feed on primary consumers, and primary consumers feed on primary producers. 

Ocean acidification can be one of the major sources of disruption in the food web, as the concentration of carbonate drastically reduces from the increase of bicarbonate levels in the ocean. Furthermore, much sea life heavily depends on carbonate, including clams and oysters, to build and strengthen their shells for survival. However, with the hydrogen ions bonding with the carbonate ions from the dissolved calcium carbonate ions, the population of primary consumers experiences a decline. Some hatcheries have even lost 80% of their production in oysters. Additionally, to backtrack on primary producers, most plankton dissolve due to the sensitivity of their thin shells to the altered acidity of the seawater chemistry. Without the base of the food web, the top of the food web becomes more endangered. Adding on to challenges in the lower food web, Mustelus canis sharks in the tertiary and quaternary consumer level have been studied to avoid odor cues in detecting their prey in water with high CO2 levels, compared to a control group. Moreover, negative impacts on the food web in marine life will lead to defects in the environment on land. 

As the marine life dies out from the untreated acidification, the National Resources Defense Council believes that the seafood industry can lose 400 million dollars annually; in fact, the seafood industry is a significant driver of the United States’ economy. This puts society’s livelihoods at risk, with approximately 260 million marine fisheries worldwide that are dependent on the bounty from the sea. 

With numerous risks to our environment in the sea and on land, ocean acidification should be taken seriously and managed properly. Certain organizations and programs, like NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program, have projects in place to take action against acidification. The OAP is currently working on methods of carbon dioxide removal, such as carbon capture through seafood farms. Seaweed and seagrass have been found to absorb a large amount of carbon dioxide. With large farms of these, the amount of carbon dioxide will be reduced in the Earth’s atmosphere and ocean, slowing down the acidification process.