A major study that has taken more than 250 scientists eight years to complete has concluded that carbon dioxide emissions from modern society are placing all sea life at risk by making the oceans more acidic.
The Biological Impacts of Ocean Acidification report, released by the German-led BIOACID Project, also said that changes through acidification – which is occurring because as CO2 from fossil fuels dissolves in seawater, it produces carbonic acid that lowers the pH of the water – will be made worse by climate change, pollution, over-fishing, coastal developments and agricultural fertilisers.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the average pH of global ocean surface waters have fallen from pH 8.2 to 8.1, which represents an increase in acidity of about 26 percent.
The research was conducted around the world, with scientists visiting areas as diverse as the North Sea, Baltic and Arctic to Papua New Guinea.
