Ocean Chemistry & Currents

Water and salts make up the ocean. Gases like carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere have dissolved in the ocean. An estimated 30% of the CO2 in the atmosphere is now in the ocean. The extra CO2 that has been put into the atmosphere gets absorbed by the ocean. This causes ocean acidification. Ocean acidification happens when the carbon dioxide in the ocean creates carbonic acid which goes through a process to make the pH decrease. This is bad for the animals that rely on calcium-based things like their shells. It makes the shells brittle so they break more easily. This happens because when the carbon dioxide increases, calcium carbonate is not as available. This means that these animals like hermit crabs and more have nothing to protect them because their shell serves as an exoskeleton. When the pH level decreases the acidity increases. But on the other hand, this isn't all bad. For some animals, like crustaceans and copepods, this helps them grow. This will be talked about more on the ocean life page.

Ocean Currents And How They're Changing

An ocean current is a system in which warm water is transported from the equator towards the poles and then cold water from the poles back down to the equator. The global conveyor belt is the movement of water around the globe where cold salty water sinks and warm water stays surfaced. Climate change could disrupt the conveyor belt because of the melting of glaciers and all the freshwater coming in. Warm freshwater is stopping the ice from forming which will stop cold salty water from sinking. This will mess up the process of the cold water sinking. If the conveyor belt were to get disrupted it could cause drastic temperature drop in Europe.