Earth Equity News

Research Expands to 'Sister' Issue of Global Warming. By Andrew Jensen, Alaska Journal of Commerce, April 2, 2010. "Rising temperatures and sea levels, melting glaciers and extreme weather dominate the discussion on global warming, but a parallel issue with potentially tremendous impact on Alaska's coastal waters is finally gaining attention... While the atmosphere circulates at a rate of around once a year, dispersing CO2 emissions from every source across the globe, the ocean circulates once every 1,000 years. As CO2 in the atmosphere increases, it bonds with H2O molecules and causes the levels of carbonate ions and aragonite in ocean water necessary for calcification to decrease. At higher levels of acidity (lower pH levels), any organism that forms a shell through calcification -- from clams to pteropods -- could be adversely affected. These species use the naturally occurring carbonate minerals calcite and aragonite for the calcification process. A decrease in these mineral levels to food web base species like pteropods, also known as sea butterflies, which make up 45% of the diet for juvenile pink salmon, can cause cascading waves of disruption up the food chain."