From the earliest times, we seem to have believed that the vast oceans, with all their natural resources, would never let us down.
The oceans seem to be unchanging, immune to anything that we might do.
But human activities have changed this, as with all other resources, the oceans are limited.
Today, the Arctic is where we are observing strong evidence of ongoing climate change,
and a new consequence of this has been identified strongly here.
Arctic Ocean Acidification
The Arctic is highly vulnerable to climate change.
Already now, the Arctic oceans are warming, the summer and winter ice cover is shrinking,
and enormous quantities of fresh water from rivers and melting ice are pooling at the ocean's surface.
The very basis of the system is changing.
We traditionally have viewed many of the changes that are and could happen to the Arctic as stressors on marine ecosystems, on geochemical systems.
Traditionally, these have been warming, freshening changes in nutrient supply,
but now we have what can be considered the new kid on the block, Ocean Acidification.
As humans continue to burn coal, oil and gas, we are changing the composition of the atmosphere.
The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and in the surface ocean used to be in balance, but this is no longer so.
The natural balance has been overturned.
The result is a massive increase in CO2, absorbed at the ocean's surface, and this is driving chemical changes that are affecting all aspects of marine life.
We often see that you can only push organisms so far, so you push them to the limit, and then their reaction is just to crash.
So instead of seeing a kind of a gradual decline in their performance or in their ability to cope with changes,
you see that they kind of just fall off the edge at a certain point.
The effects of these changes in living conditions extend to the very base of the food chain.
The plankton and zooplankton at the lowest end of the food web are some of the most plentiful creatures in the sea.
They are also exposed to acidification. The entire ecosystem could be affected.
Ocean acidification is not some theory. It's a fact. It's happening now. It's been happening for the last 150 years.
We can measure it. It's accelerating.
We have a window to do something. If we don't act in that time, then the amount of CO2 that we're already releasing into the atmosphere will become even higher,
and the effects that we see out there already will become irreversible, and we will change the ecosystem.
