Fast-Melting Arctic Ice is Turning the Ocean Acidic

Why in the News?

Recently, a team of researchers has flagged the changing chemistry of the western region of the Arctic Ocean.

Key Points:

Key observation about the Arctic:

• It is the first analysis of Arctic acidification that includes data from 1994 to 2020.

• It has been discovered that the acidity levels are increasing three to four times faster than ocean waters elsewhere.

• The team also identified a strong correlation between the accelerated rate of melting ice and the rate of ocean acidification.

• • Scientists have predicted that by 2050, Arctic sea ice will no longer survive the increasingly warm summers.
  • They point to sea-ice melt as the key mechanism to explain this rapid pH decrease.

• Sea-ice melt changes surface water in three primary ways.

• • First, the water under the sea ice, which had a deficit of carbon dioxide, now is exposed to atmospheric carbon dioxide and can take it up freely.
  • The seawater mixed with meltwater is light and can’t mix easily into deeper waters, which means the carbon dioxide is concentrated at the surface.
  • The meltwater dilutes the carbonate ion concentration in the seawater, weakening its ability to neutralise the carbon dioxide into bicarbonate and rapidly decreasing ocean pH.

Concerns: 

• Threatens the Earth’s climate.
• Creates life-threatening problems for the survival of plants, shellfish, coral reefs and other marine life.
• The ocean’s chemistry will grow more acidic, with no persistent ice cover to slow.