Climate alarmist claims that coral will suffer long-term harm due to lower pH levels proven wrong by new study - ocean "acidifcation" fears debunked, robustly
Read here. With the failed global warming alarmism proving to be non-sustainable due to lower global temperatures, alarmists made ocean "acidification" their next predicted calamity to cause world collapse.
Scientists decided to research and analyze the non-scientific acidification claims by conducting experiments on cold water coral, which is considered to be most susceptible to lower pH levels. Much like the left's / liberal's embrace of fraudulent anti-vaccine fears, the researchers found the irrational acidification fears to be misplaced also.
"Ocean acidification, often termed ‘the evil twin of global warming’, is caused when the CO2 emitted by human activity dissolves into the oceans. Presently, the ocean takes up about 25% of man-made CO2, which has led to a decrease in seawater pH of 0.1 units since 1800. By 2100, surface ocean pH values can easily drop by another 0.3–0.4 units...the impacts it may have on marine organisms and ecosystems are still poorly understood. A major gap in our understanding of the impacts of ocean acidification on life in the sea is the potential of marine organisms to acclimate and adapt to increasing seawater acidity"..."they found was that in an experiment that lasted only 8 days, that the growth rate of the coral was slowed down by the dissolution of extra CO2 into the aquarium water...In a second experiment in which the coral specimens were exposed to lower pH levels for 178 days, the growth rate did not decline, and in fact, even appeared to increase under the lower pH (more acid) conditions...Instead, growth rate, which was comparable to that of the control treatment in the short-term experiment, stayed high at elevated CO2 levels." [Armin U., Ulf Riebesell 2012: Global Change Biology]
Conclusions: #1 Ocean acidification fears debunked; #2 species like coral may adversely be affected in the short-term but become acclimated over the long-term; and #3 coral and other ocean species have existed and prospered in seas with lower pH levels
Previous coral-threat, ocean-acidification and peer-reviewed postings.