Last edited 26 Aug 2022

Ocean acidification

A Guide To Climate Change Impacts, On Scotland’s Historic Environment, published by Historic Environment Scotland in October 2019, defines ocean acidification as: ‘a term used to describe significant changes to the chemistry of the ocean. It occurs when carbon dioxide gas (or CO) is absorbed by the ocean and reacts with seawater to produce acid.'

AR5 Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Glossary, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests that: ‘Ocean acidification refers to a reduction in the pH of the ocean over an extended period, typically decades or longer, which is caused primarily by uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but can also be caused by other chemical additions or subtractions from the ocean. Anthropogenic ocean acidification refers to the component of pH reduction that is caused by human activity.’

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