[Peakoil] Tuesday: The Other CO2 Problem: Ocean Acidification

[Katja]

Dear all,

Come to this!

The Other CO2 Problem: Ocean Acidification

Dr. Harvey Marchant
1-2pm Tuesday 16th September
Manning Clarke T5

CO2 is at its highest concentration in at least 650,000 years. Temperatures,
rainfall and sea level rise are getting attention, but there's another big
consequence: the increasing acidification of the sea. The oceans have taken
up about half of the CO2 we have produced in the last 200 years, making them
more acidic. As the oceans become more acidic organisms which make their
shells and skeletons from calcium carbonate have increasing difficulty in
doing so. Acidification of the sea also alters the availability of nutrients
for phytoplankton and bacteria. Marine environment communities will change
as a direct effect of acidification as well as from resulting changes in
food webs. Predicting these changes, as well as the environmental and
economic consequences of these changes is a major challenge in marine
biology.

Harvey is an international authority on Antarctic biology. He is author of
over 100 scientific papers and book chapters. He is a member of the
Editorial Boards of two international scientific journals and has been a
Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessments in
1995, 2001 and 2007.
Kind regards,

-- 
Katja Grace
BSc/Econ Undergraduate
President, ANU Zero Emissions Society
e: katjasolveig at gmail.com
m: 0407124549
p: 02 62491216
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