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TechnoratiThe Bay of Naples is renowned for its breathtaking beauty and glittering clear waters. For centuries, tourists have flocked to the region to experience its glories.
![[In Ischia's highly acidic water Algae vital for binding coral reefs have been wiped out. (REUTERS/HO/Great Barrier Reef National Park Authority)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/1005-0.jpeg "1005-0.jpeg")
But beneath the waves, scientists have uncovered an alarming secret. They have found streams of gas bubbling up from the seabed around the island of Ischia. 'The waters are like a Jacuzzi - there is so much carbon dioxide fizzing up from the seabed,' said Dr Jason Hall-Spencer, of Plymouth University. 'Millions of litres of gas bubble up every day.'
The gas streams have turned Ischia's waters into acid, and this has had a major impact on sea life and aquatic plants. Now marine biologists fear that the world's seas could follow suit.
'Every day the oceans absorb more than 25m tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,' said Hall-Spencer. 'If it were not for the oceans, levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would be far higher than they are today and the impact of climate change would be far worse. However, there is a downside: it is called ocean acidification.'
Scientists calculate that the seas are absorbing so much carbon dioxide that they are 30 per cent more acidic than they were at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The change is three times greater and has happened 100 times faster than at any other time during the past 20 million years.
Tomorrow hundreds of scientists will gather in Monaco for the 'Second International Symposium on the Ocean in a High CO2 World'. One focus of debate is likely to be the Plymouth study. The seas off Ischia - which are affected by carbon dioxide from volcanic activity - offer a first-class opportunity to investigate what might happen in the next few decades.
Scientists found that in Ischia's highly acidic water:
• Biodiversity of plants and fish has dropped by 30 per cent
• Algae vital for binding coral reefs have been wiped out
• Invasive 'alien' species, such as sea-grasses, are thriving
• Coral and sea urchins have been destroyed, while mussels and clams are failing to grow shells.
The conference will also tackle the dangers posed to fish larvae, which are sensitive to high levels of acid, as well as the threat to commercial fish stocks.
'Many developing countries have seafood as their prime source of food,' said Dr Carol Turley, of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory. 'If they lose that, the result could be famine.'
50 Comments so far
Show All"Although the ocean's chemical response to higher carbon dioxide levels is relatively predictable, the biological response is more uncertain. The ocean's pH and carbonate chemistry has been remarkably stable for millions of years--much more stable than temperature.
"We know that ocean acidification will damage corals and other organisms, but there's just no experimental data on how most species might be affected," says Caldeira. "Most experiments have been done in the lab with just a few individuals. While the results are alarming, it's nearly impossible to predict how this unprecedented acidification will affect entire ecosystems." Reduced calcification will surely hurt shellfish such as oysters and mussels, with big effects on commercial fisheries. Other organisms may flourish in the new conditions, but this may include undesirable "weedy" species or disease organisms."
Acidifying Oceans Add Urgency To Carbon Dioxide Cuts from Science Daily
http://oneplanetonelife.com/opol/index.php?option=com_content&view=categ...
"The current massive degradation of habitat and extinction of species is taking place on a catastrophically short timescale, and their effects will fundamentally reset the future evolution of the planet's biota." - National Academy of Sciences
www.oneplanetonelife.com
I dove in Florida for many years, then I stopped. Too many parasites on too few fish, too many old tire deserts, too many algae covered dead corals, too many reefs covered with spiderwebs of fishing lines. Then along with the boom in scuba diving, nitrox and scooters came along to extend the spearfishing time and distance covered underwater. Marine life don't stand a chance.
I used to snorkel in the Caribbean before scuba gear became available. It was a riot of color and fish everywhere. Even then I could see the broken coral caused by boat anchors and the dead inshore reefs that were squirted with Clorox to stun and catch the marine life within.
I stopped diving because having witnessed the way it was and the way it is today, it was too disturbing for me. It's become the ocean equivalent of "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot". I stopped hunting for the same reason. It has become a war against remaining species, fought with increasing technology and human encroachment on their environment.
I grew up diving the Keys in the 60s.
The developers were dredging canals from the ocean in, and the tide would carry silt out to the reef.
It was the divers who pushed to save the reef and get them to dredge the canal and then break the barrier to the ocean.
Development ruined Florida in my opinion. I moved from there in 1974.
I would agree. But, being stuck here in Ohio, I would love to give it a whirl, almost anywhere.
But, diving has always been a luxury for me. Free diving would appear to cost nothing. But, you cannot exactly do it in the Great Lakes.
The Bahamsas were better--but, at the time, I did not think ahead enough to what it might be doing to "hand feed the sharks". Well, it turns out, that, those same sharks I dove with, a longline ship anchored right outside the "safe area" at UNEXSCO, because they knew of the semi-tame sharks, and proceeded to "fin" everyone of them, throwing them back to bve cannibalized. (I'm sure you guys know of this)
I would never support such a thing. The dolphins swiming used no food, etc. You know, the Bahama Banks--where the spoted dolphins just swim up to you. I've got some great pics of that.
This article presents more questions than answers. It begins by telling us about CO2 bubbling up from the seafloor. Then it says ocean acidification is due to absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere. But why isn't ocean acidification hypothesized to arise from the gas coming from these seafloor vents? This is clearly suggested by the existence of the vents and the noteworthy volume of gas coming from them. Also, since the oceans are known to be warming, and they release CO2 as they do so (and absorb CO2 when they cool), doesn't anyone think that perhaps a significant portion of atmospheric CO2 comes from seafloor vents, pumping out gas faster than the oceans can absorb it? This article would seem to suggest that hypothesis..
Carol
You see man distroys everything they touch or have anything to do with and that is a fact.
What it seems we need is some bright mind to develop passive acid, CO2, and chemical collectors so the "offending" elements could be reclaimed from environments where there is over-saturation. The collectors could be set at areas where pollutants enter the system, or simply immersed along the coast line - the reclaimed concentrations could be harvested and sold back into an economy where there is always a demand for basic elements.
Passive collection would cause no harm to marine life and someone (or several someones) could create a new industry of harvesting and resetting the collectors and marketing the concentrated elements.
A man convinced against his will - is of the same opinion still.
The article title "...turns to acid..." is a little misleading.
The CO2 bubbling around he island is coming from volcanic vents of some sort. The scientists are using the locally increased CO2 as a worst case scenario for ocean absorption of fossil fuel CO2.
I'm not up to this explanation tonight, but briefly the excess CO2 dissolved in the water becomes acidic and lowers the pH very slightly. The acid will eventually find calcium carbonate and dissolve some of it as the pH goes back to a more normal level. We are adding CO2 to the ocean much faster than than the equilibrium and original pH can be restored.
The acidity interferes with plankton trying to form calcium carbonate shells and attacks calcium carbonate in coral. No plankton = no ocean food chain. People have suggested adding ground limestone (calcium carbonate) to the oceans to neutralize the aciidity, and there are schemes of using limestone in water to capture CO2 from coal plant smoke stacks and turn it into calcium bicarbonate.
You dont have to answer this tonight, but, are the volcanic vents, the "black smokers" and "cold seeps"?
I know that calcium makes yur blood electrolytes less acid, Also, potassium, magnesium, etc. Doesnt that have to do with the pH of the sea, like in your blood?
Just wondering .
Save our ocean! Save this planet! We need a moratorium on breeding and followed by a one-child per woman policy worldwide. I am sure our new president, Mr. Obama, will propose it at the UN on Jan 21, 2009 and it will be immediately endorsed by the Catholic Church, Mormons, Baptists, Amish, Jews, Buddhists and others. Ha! Ha!
Actually, all you have to do is roll out a birth tax, 5000 dollars at birth for 2nd child or higher, and 1000 per year thereafter. Makes the investment in condoms a good one. Of course, the bankers would then end abortion and sell us leaky condoms, since the taxes make sure the government can pay the interest on the debt.
"Invasive 'alien' species, such as sea-grasses, are thriving"
So the ecosystem changes - some species leave, others come in. Life goes on. Overfishing is a graver and more immediate threat. GW hasn't wiped out dozens of major species (yet). Overfishing has, and will continue to do so.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pmurray
http://www.paulmurray.id.au/ageofworms
We had growth on the ropes until the Congress in its ignorance choose to provide seven hundred billion dollars to keep growth going.
G'Day from Down Under - I live in Tropical North Queensland (FNQ), at the far northern end of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). I am not a marine biologist, but have been scuba diving for the last 30+ year regularly - not only locally, but pretty much all over the world.
Here in FNQ we have a huge sugarcane growing industry, which used to be up until about 20 years ago the main source of income for the locals. Now it is tourism, but the sugarcane industry is still huge.
I have lived here for the last 10 years and have been diving regularly in these waters. I have also known plenty of marine biologists, who have explained in layman's terms the harm the sugarcane industry is doing: all the nutrients get washed into the oceans (directly to the Coral Sea) and feeds the growth of algae, which in turn take all the oxygen from the coral and other "native" inhabitants and simply stunt their growth, reproductive cycles or simply kill them by suffocating them or taking away their feed.
Also, there is a huge debate about the frequency of crown of thorn starfish appearences: is it natural? How many is normal? How often?
Then there is coral bleaching, which is of course caused by overheating of the oceans.
Hope this helps a bit - K Delphi, I'm just a layman and a very enthusiastic scuba diver and sea-lover.
cheers,
t_g
Thanks! I knew about some of this--but not all.
I wish I was diving in Austrailia!
BTW--there was a really wierd thing off the Caroina coast--it seems that regular reef sharks were attacking peole--just biting--not "eating". It turned out that, there was a cattle slaughterhouse , upriver, that emptied into the sea, and they werent supposed to be dumpiong the blood and waste there, but they were. It had caused the sharks to behave very erratically. I have dived with reef sharks, and know, that, when the food runs out, so do they. They are not the least bit interested in you. It is almost boring! You go "Oh!" and yell into your reg ulator, and they;re GONE!
I hope I didnt gross anybody out. The point being, I guess, is that , what we put in the sea matters. It has all kinds of effects that are completley unpredictable, that may have never been sen before.
No sea, no people, no life.
snydly
All the raw info one needs to connect the dots is in the IPCC ice core data charts (also in Gore's book, the book, better than the movie) and the book, Under a Green Sky, and oddly enough, Black Elk Speaks, note the references to cardinal compass directions in his rituals. Also good is Bridge at the End of the World by Gus Speth.
To reverse the Malthusian growth, start with free public transit. This eliminates [gradually] the private auto. At the same time, provide all children with clean water, nutrition, and education. Education and the ending of childhood death drops the birth rate dramatically. This all could be done with the fortune of one single multibillionarire.
http://freepublictransit.org
It will never work in America, for the same reason that it has never worked: white people don't want to share a bus with black people. Racism is at the root of most that ails america.
Anyway. It will take more than public transport. It will take a redesign of our cities so that less transport is needed.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/pmurray
http://www.paulmurray.id.au/ageofworms
That may be the case somewhere--where? I mean, maybe older people in the south.
Hell, the bus is crappy in Dayton--but I've ridden it with black peole alot--I think. The city is about 60-% Af. Am. , so I think I would notice if it was "all black" or "all white".
That is the strangest excuse I've ever heard for not building high speed transit.
"This all could be done with the fortune of one single multibillionaire."
It could, but billionaire's main concern is "keeping up with the Waltons", not saving the planet. And more people means more slaves.
I left my dear California 8 years ago because the ocean was so polluted that I couldn't swim in it any more.
My family has lived in CA for over 100 years so it was a big loss to me.
I have spent most of my life trying to educate people about environmental issues. Ever since they put in a nuclear power plant in San Onofre in the 1960's and I noticed a year later that many of the small shell creatures were disappearing.
I just don't know what to say about all this.
Most of this mess is because we all drive automobiles.
And because of the population increase.
And because of short sighted human greed.
The greedy ones are like hungry ghosts...their appetite is insatiable and it takes a lot to slow them down.
The population increase is because we have eradicated a lot of childhood diseases and upset the natural order of things.
And I don't know why we are still driving cars except everything would stop if we couldn't.
Picture a closed garage with your automobile in it....with the engine on.
How long could you survive in that toxic mess?
The Earth is a closed environment.
Think about it and then act accordingly.
"They" aren't going to do anything about it because they aren't very smart and they are asleep...as the Buddists would say.
Only the collective "We" can make a difference.
But mostly all of this makes me very sad.
"They" aren't going to do anything about it because they aren't very smart and they are asleep...as the Buddists would say."
I agree with everything you say and I feel sad about it too. But eradicating childhood disease would have been a big plus if they promoted birth control instead.
And though Buddha was cool, he probably had diabetes.
This is what clean coal is doing to this globe.
END MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL
http://www.wisecountyissues.com
For the most retarded ones the economy is sound, global climate change a hoax and victory on all frontiers inevitable.
The truth is simple. Game Over for human mankind as we know it. The article is a lukewarm remake of an article about 'Global Ocean Acidification' a while ago. Nobody seems to care. As a matter of fact, there have never been more hummer's on Hawaiian roads then today. For a population that believes it is okay to live at the expenses of others and the planet, Karma will have some surprises handy.
Focus on the energy that we all are, not on the material world which is believed since thousands of years to be just an illusion. We all will die sooner or later. Some better sooner than later, but a many will die way too soon. It was called "The American Way Of Life" for some time, but we have entered the finals into 'The American Way Of Death'. In a very few years Oceans will no longer provide the amount of biomass we were used to extract for a century. Your canned tuna will soon be history.
Forget about elections - the only vote You have is at the register
Would it be practical to stop procreating for awhile?
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html
No.
"The current massive degradation of habitat and extinction of species is taking place on a catastrophically short timescale, and their effects will fundamentally reset the future evolution of the planet's biota." - National Academy of Sciences
www.oneplanetonelife.com
I don't see a connection between your answer and your quote.
They procreate in other countries, and we import the results and the procreators. Fertility rates are at or below replacement level for Americans who are descended from those who immigrated more than 35 years ago. Without immigration, Americas population would be declining. Fewer people to tax and charge interest.
What about the planet? What abvout all of Ws foreign aid being tied to "abstinence", instead of concom use.
Interesting. What's your source. Thanks.
The article is a little loosely worded. The dividing line between acid and base is commonly accepted to be pH of 7.0; seawater is generally at a pH of 8.2. The increased partial pressure of CO2 is definitely driving the seawater pH down toward 8.1; this will have a definite impact. But we are not, as yet, creating a pool of seawater of pH 7.0 or lower.
bikesnbach
Denver
Hi again,
I still don't understant the
"there is so much carbon dioxide fizzing up from the seabed"
statement in the article.
anyone??
Thanks,
Doug
It is coming from volcanic activity. So this is a localized area where CO2 levels are higher and the oceans less basic from which to study the effects on the oceans if the pH drops more. A 30% increase in CO2 is like 0.1 on the pH scale.
I guess someone with more of a background in marine biology would have to answer.
I can basicaly tell you what I see when I dive. I know that if Florida allows much more off polluting the coast, they can throw their economy in the toilet. Most of Keys income is tourists. I guess the ones that just come to see tits and drink woudl still come.
When you are divin off Big PIne Key, and you surface, to take a deep breatht from your snorkel, and a piece of human waste block yu--it is time to do aomething.
I experienced so much filth in the water in Panama city beach, the visiblility was alm ost zero. (Oil driling). The Emerald Coast is dying. Crystal River is so warm, manatees are dying.
The Little Bahama Banks are still much more clear, but when you go to swim with dolphins there--they bring you pieces of "garbage" to "play with them with". (They also do it with "stunned fishes", so I assume that that is what they want. It could be a "Get your fucking garbage out of my home".) But, I dont speak dolphin.
Maybe it's "Here, I think you lost this."
Would it be practical to pipe the carbon dioxide into hugh greenhouses, where it would stimulate growth in plants that would then convert it to oxygen? Is this being done or contemplated anywhere?
snydly
Or millions of small green houses...
I understand the water absorbing CO2 and having a lower pH
but I don't understand where the "bubbling gas" is coming from.
Anyone have some information on this?
Thanks, Doug
They have found streams of gas bubbling up from the seabed around the island of Ischia. 'The waters are like a Jacuzzi - there is so much carbon dioxide fizzing up from the seabed,
It seems that there is a biologist or something on here, and, I just speak from experiece (in classes on diving) , but i'll hazard a guess at what I think it is.-
They are coming from the "underwater volcanoes". Liek the ones in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. (The black smokers and cold seeps) There are also underwater methane lakes. I have read that scientists think that if the ocean temps keep going up, we could have "methane explosions" that would displace the sea water.
If there is someone who knows better, please correct me. I am just very interested in this topic, but, I only had a couple of Biology course , at the BS level.
In any case, the narrowing diversity of species, and the over-comsumption by humans is sure to effect the seas, even without global warming. These new trawlers and satellite fishing just is not sustainable.
snydly
Check out USGS.gov earthquake hazards page and note the tectonic activity along plate boundaries.
We have nothing to worry about. George Bush, Cheney, Sarah Palen, and the list goes on--all are endowed with the devine guidance. Hence they have the credibiity to overide the international scientific community on this matter. Americans must believe this because they allowed this administration to steal two elections.
Man is Earth's worst enemy!
Why is no link made to the propositions that CO2 be pumped underground?
Major planetary extinction time No. 3, here we come!
It is probably too late to do anything now. Maybe this one will be the last, as the long-term solar luminosity increase will make it increasingly difficult for life to crawl back up.
The cause this time will not be asteroids or massive volcanism in conjunction with an unfortunate arrangement of the continents and seas. It will be due to a the rise of the peculiar species Homo sapiens, and it's stunningly destructive maladaptive social behavior called "capitalism".
Actually, this will be the sixth.
"... we are currently responsible for the sixth major extinction event in the history of earth ..." Convention on Biological Diversity: Global Biodiversity Outlook 2
http://oneplanetonelife.com/opol/index.php?option=com_content&view=categ...
"The current massive degradation of habitat and extinction of species is taking place on a catastrophically short timescale, and their effects will fundamentally reset the future evolution of the planet's biota." - National Academy of Sciences
www.oneplanetonelife.com
Capitalism kills
Is it God's will that humans destroy his art?
Humans have free will.
The Gods are either laughing or appalled. I'm not sure which.
No. But it appears to be some humans will.
If there is a god, I dont see how he can let this go on.
Being a (former?? Just cannot afford it anymore)free and scuba diver, I can say that, on the coral reefs of Florida Keys, Bahama Banks, etc. you can already see the die-off. Some species are simply ceasing to exist, and mercury and other chemcials are showing up in the flesh of apex predators,. This includes fish that alot of people eat, but, also dolphins and whales (well, some people eat them I guess).
Manatees are doomed. The red algae blooms (not the kind that help) often make the seas off Fla. "unswimmable" for entire season, Now, they want to drill off of them. As the USs only coral reef, the Keys needs to be preserved for everyone. They do not belong to corporations, and they have no right stealing them from us.
If the seas die, we die.