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The warming temperatures of the ocean are problematic for many species, but especially worrisome is the impact hotter water has on cornerstone species upon which many other marine animals rely. Usually we hear about changes in ocean temperature impacting coral reefs, but now scientists are finding that across the globe, phytoplankton -- the food for zooplankton which is food for many other ocean species -- is in decline, and that will have massive impacts for not just the marine food chain but ocean systems on the whole.

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If you've been looking for a new reason to argue for saving the whales, researchers at the Australian Antarctic Division have come up with it. We've been hearing reports about the worrying effects of ocean acidification, and the even more worrying concepts for how to combat it, including dumping iron into the oceans as fertilizer for marine plant life, which stimulates growth all the way up the food chain. Right now, acidification is intensifying thanks to carbon emissions. But rather than geoengineering solutions to the problem, we could just stop whaling since whales, it turns out, do just that fertilizing for us. "

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"We're familiar with the problem of ocean acidification causing crustaceans' shells to dissolve. The problem has been seen among species such as oysters, clams and mussels. However a new study shows that in several other species such as crabs, shrimp and lobsters, increased acidity can spur a thickening of shells. But thicker shells doesn't signal that the animals are in a safer position. "

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"A study of the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans from 1765 to the present shows that as humanity pumps more CO2 into the atmosphere, the capacity of the world’s oceans to continue absorbing carbon appears to be decreasing."

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"Unexpectedly rapid increases in the acidity of the Arctic Ocean, affecting the Arctic food chain, reported Sunday are part of a larger problem of acidification in the most fertile regions in the global oceans. Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning have raised atmospheric CO2 levels, increasing the acidity of the oceans because CO2 reacts with water to form carbonic acid.

Approximately 1/3 of all CO2 emissions to date have been taken up by the oceans, raising the acidity of the water. Because cold water takes up more CO2 than warm water, cold nutrient rich polar regions and tropical and temperate upwelling regions that support most of the ocean's biological activity are acidifying fastest. Cold, acidic waters, will dissolve the shells of sensitive marine organisms, breaking the food chain, in the most fertile, oxygen generating, areas of the oceans"

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Changes to the ocean caused by carbon dioxide emissions could lead to an "underwater catastrophe", damaging wildlife, food production and livelihoods, scientists have warned.

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How much carbon dioxide is too much? According to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) greenhouse gases in the atmosphere need to be stabilized at levels low enough to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." But scientists have come to realize that an even more acute danger than climate change is lurking in the world's oceans—one that is likely to be triggered by CO2 levels that are modest by climate standards.
Ocean acidification could devastate coral reefs and other marine ecosystems even if atmospheric carbon dioxide stabilizes at 450 ppm, a level well below that of many climate change forecasts

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