Ocean Food Chains "Shattering" Under Impacts Of Acidification, Warming

[hatrack]

BROOKLIN, Canada, Apr 10 (IPS) - Vast swaths of coral reefs in the Caribbean sea and South Pacific Ocean are dying, while the recently-discovered cold-water corals in northern waters will not survive the century -- all due to climate change. The loss of reefs will have a catastrophic impact on all marine life.

One-third of the coral at official monitoring sites in the area of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have recently perished in what scientists call an "unprecedented" die-off. Extremely high sea temperatures in the summer and fall of 2005 that spawned a record hurricane season have also caused extensive coral bleaching extending from the Florida Keys to Tobago and Barbados in the south and Panama and Costa Rica, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch.

High sea temperatures are also killing parts of Australia's 2,000-kilometre-long Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest living reef formation. As summer ends in the Southern Hemisphere, researchers are now investigating the extent of the coral bleaching. Up to 98 percent of the coral in one area has been affected, reported the Australian Institute of Marine Science last week. "The Great Barrier Reef has been living on this planet for 18 million years and we've undermined its existence within our lifetimes," says Brian Huse, executive director of the Coral Reef Alliance, a U.S.-based NGO dedicated to protecting the health of coral reefs. "Twenty percent of Earth's reefs have been lost and 50 percent face moderate to severe threats," Huse told IPS.

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Every day, the average person on the planet burns enough fossil fuel to emit 24 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, out of which about nine pounds is then taken up by the ocean. As this CO2 combines with seawater, it forms an acid in a process known as ocean acidification. There is no debate about the fact that the oceans are becoming more and more acidic due to climate change, says Scott Doney, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the U.S. "What isn't known is how marine life will react," Doney said in an interview. Coral reefs in tropical areas appear to withstand current and future acidification, but new research shows that the recently discovered cold-water corals are highly sensitive, he says.

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http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32843

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but methane + acid = methanol

The methane would come from seabed methane clathrate hydrate ices.

I'm not thinking of methanol as a fuel source, but as a toxin for nearly all life forms.

Is this a plausible worry?

--p!

[phantom power]

2. I don't know, but the acid itself will kill many life forms.