Do the increased amounts of carbon dioxide absorbed by the ocean affect marine life?
A. SCOTT DONEY: Carbon dioxide is a weak acid. When you dissolve carbon dioxide in water, you form carbonic acid. Unfortunately, a lot of organisms in the ocean form shells out of calcium carbonate. You can think of chalk, and if you want to do an interesting experiment, put a piece of chalk in a jar with vinegar, which is a weak acid. You can watch the chalk dissolve and disappear. That’s what’s going to happen into the future as we continue to add carbon dioxide to the ocean. All the shells of these small, little marine organisms and of corals, which also form their shells out of calcium carbonate, are going to start to dissolve. In fact, there’s good evidence from the laboratory that a whole range of organisms are unable to form their shells in a high-CO2 environment. The maps (at right) show a color-coded estimate of how easy it was in 1994 for marine organisms to form shells out of calcium carbonite. Red and orange indicate areas in the oceans where organisms can form shells easil
