CO2 is an acid. That now more and more of it dissolves in the oceans creates organisms with Kalkgehäusen big problems: the limestone dissolves. We know from the coffee machine, the we descale with vinegar (acid). This fact, however, sheds new light on the man-made CO2 emissions: Regardless of how you stand on climate change - the CO2 emissions must be reduced.
The barely braked carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere have not only their consequences, but also in the oceans. About half of the CO2 that humans have emitted since the industrial revolution, has landed in the ocean, researchers have stressed the British Royal Society in the summer of 2005. A portion of the carbon dioxide that dissolves in the oceans is, while carbon dioxide - and attacks anything that contains lime.
are affected by this especially clams and corals. But not only them: The waters around the South Pole about themselves are tiny crustaceans that belong to the plankton and are the basis of the marine food chain. Their calcareous have Shares are also suffering from the acid attack. The increased carbon dioxide content also affect the phytoplankton, tiny plant organisms that float in the water.
Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution in Washington was now looking for fossils in similar processes in the Earth's history - and found it. The chemistry of the oceans has his data show similar about 65 million years ago dramatically changed as today - exactly the time when dinosaurs extinct.
"The geological history shows that the chemical effects of ocean acidification can last tens of thousands of years," Caldeira said. "But biological recovery could take millions of years to complete. The Ocean acidification has the potential to wipe out many species in the sea." ( mirror )
