CO2 emissions could violate US ocean quality
criteria within decades
8th October 2007
A commentary by an international team of 25 leading scientists,
including Dr Carol Turley from PML, has stated that human-induced
CO2 will alter ocean chemistry to the point where it
will violate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Quality
Criteria for Water by mid-century, if emissions are not
dramatically curtailed now.
The commentary, which was published in the Geophysical Research
Letters (GRL), also says that CO2 generated “changes in
ocean chemistry, within the ranges predicted for the next decades
and centuries, present significant risks to marine biota” and that
“adverse impacts on food webs and key biogeochemical process” would
result.
It is widely recognised that the current rapid increases in
atmospheric CO2 have actually reduced the pH of the
oceans, as natural chemistry-balancing processes (the carbonate
buffering system) struggle to keep pace with the influx of absorbed
atmospheric CO2. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency [1976] Quality Criteria for Water state: “For open ocean
waters, where the depth is substantially greater than the euphotic
zone*, the pH should not be changed more than 0.2 units outside the
range of naturally occurring variation...”
Dr Carol Turley, from PML and co-author of this paper,
commented: “The GRL paper states that the increased acidity of the
oceans, that will occur as surface oceans take up the increasing
CO2 from the atmosphere because of burning fossil fuels,
will violate US Environmental Protection Agency quality criteria in
approximately 50 years, if our CO2 emissions continue at
the same rate.
Dr Turley continues: “This is the 1st time that atmospheric
CO2 emissions have been recognised to violate EPA water
quality criteria and these changes in ocean chemistry are of great
concern as this may adversely affect marine organisms, ecosystems
and key biogeochemical processes.”