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Acidification on the Horizon

December 30, 2012

WHOI cientists Scott Doney, Anne Cohen, and Sarah Cooley (left to right) participated in a panel discussion about ocean acidification in Redfield Auditorium in August 2012. Ocean acidification is a natural process that is amplified when excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolves into the upper layers of ocean water. The resulting carbonic acid produces bicarbonate and a hydrogen ion that reduces the pH of seawater and as well as the concentration of carbonate available to organisms that produce shells or carbonate skeletons, such as mussels and corals. Watch for more informative and timely public events like this at WHOI in 2013.(Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)