SEAKEEPERS PROVIDING KEY DATA ON OCEAN ADICIFICATION AFFECT ON GLOBAL WARMING

Excuse the pun, but climate change is one of the hottest topics today, particularly with recent mass media programs on the potential catastrophic effects of greenhouse gases such as Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” and television documentaries by Tom Brokaw and Oprah Winfrey. While the global warming effects of greenhouse gases are well known, scientists are growing increasingly concerned about another negative effect of greenhouse gases, the tendency of the ocean to become more acidic as it absorbs more and more of these gases trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere. Some scientists estimate that more than a third of all human-produced CO2 has been absorbed by the oceans. As carbon dioxide dissolves in water, it lowers the pH, creating a more acidic solution.

A report by the Royal Society, the UK's leading scientific academy, said that rising carbon levels caused by the burning of fossil fuels has dramatically increased the acidity of seawater, threatening the oceans' ecosystems. "If CO2 from human activities continues to rise, the oceans will become so acidic by 2100 it could threaten marine life in ways we can't anticipate," commented Dr. Ken Caldeira, co-author of the report and staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology in Stanford, CA. “The geologic record tells us the chemical effects of ocean acidification would last tens of thousands of years. But biological recovery could take millions of years. Ocean acidification has the potential to cause extinction of many marine species.”

Because it monitors such important factors as ocean temperature, salinity and pH values, scientists are looking at the SeaKeeper 1000 as a unique platform for expanding their knowledge in this critical area.

New Data on Global Warming
According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S. (GlobalTemperatureChange, PNAS,September 26, 2006, v.103), the most recent measurement of global warming indicates that the Earth’s temperature is increasing at a rate of 0.2°C per decade. If maintained, this would equate to 2°C over the century.

While this may sound small, it is a global average. In critical places like the arctic the effects are larger. Due to the polar regions major impact on global weather patterns, this is of particular concern. Even more disturbing, recent studies by NASA and other international organizations clearly show that the rate of warming is accelerating. There is still disagreement as to specific amount of projected warming over this century, but the consensus of climatologists is clear, warming as we are experiencing today hasn’t taken place in more than ten thousand years.

Ocean Acidification Key to CO2 Equation
In 2005, several scientific bodies announced that a large unknown in the carbon flux equation had been identified – a huge amount of the carbon dioxide gas released into the atmosphere has been absorbed by oceans, particularly in the colder regions.

Over the past 200 years, the pH of the surface seawater has declined by 0.1 units, which is a 30 percent increase in hydrogen ions, according to the report.  If emissions of CO2 continue to rise as predicted in one scenario by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, pH will drop by .5 units by 2100, a level that has not existed in the oceans for millions of years.
"This report should sound the alarm bells around the world," said Chris Field, Director of the Carnegie Department of Global Ecology. "It provides compelling evidence for the need for a thorough understanding of the implications of ocean acidification." 

Adverse Effects of CO2
When CO2 gas dissolves into the ocean it produces carbonic acid, which corrodes shells of marine organisms and can interfere with their ability to take in oxygen. If current pollution trends continue, increasingly acidic water could hamper shell and coral formation and negatively impact the lives of crucial organisms such as phytoplankton and zooplankton that form the bottom of the food chain, the scientists say. Any significant die-off of small creatures would have a deadly ripple effect throughout the ecosystem.  Sea creatures such as coral, shell fish and star fish are likely to suffer because higher levels of acidity will make it harder for them to form shells and skeletons. Larger marine animals such as squid could face extinction as they find it harder to extract oxygen from sea water and their food supplies dwindle. Combined with the effects of climate change, ocean acidification also poses a threat to tropical and subtropical reefs such as Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the hundreds of thousands of species that live off them, as well as to the human communities that depend on reefs for food and as natural coastal defenses.

Professor John Raven, chair of the Royal Society working group on ocean acidification said: "Basic chemistry leaves us in little doubt that our burning of fossil fuels is changing the acidity of our oceans. And the rate change we are seeing to the ocean's chemistry is a hundred times faster than has happened for millions of years. We just do not know whether marine life which is already under threat from climate change can adapt to these changes."

But scientists are careful to point out that nobody knows how all this might play out.  "We can predict the magnitude of the acidification based on the evidence that has been collected and what's known about ocean chemistry," Caldeira said. "What we can't predict is just what acidic oceans mean to ocean ecology and to Earth's climate. International and governmental bodies must focus on this area before it's too late."

The SeaKeeper 1000™ Aiding In Research
Thousands of scientists worldwide are studying the ocean, atmosphere, and climate for keys to better understand the factors of climate change. While vast databases already exist, even more information is needed for the immensely complex climate models. Data is collected from satellites, deep ocean sensors, and near surface instruments such as the SeaKeeper 1000, our innovative modular oceanographic and atmospheric monitoring system.
The SeaKeeper 1000 is particularly qualified to evaluate the warming polar regions,. In addition to many other possible variables, its basic set of sensors monitor:
1) sea surface temperature to a hundredth of a degree;
2) salinity levels that reflect the introduction of fresh water from melting ice and other sources; and
3) acidity that indicates the carbon dioxide being dissolved as a function of the greenhouse gasses.

Leading scientists have recently been in contact with SeaKeepers about the possibility of establishing a network of up to 20 units around the arctic as a accurate and cost-effective data gathering system. It is easy to understand the immense value the SeaKeepers system could provide, particularly given the hugely expensive research platforms in the Arctic. The potential applications of the SeaKeeper 1000 are awesome.

Dr. Alexander “Sandy” MacDonald (left), Director of NOAA’s new Earth System Research Laboratory, with SeaKeepers CEO John Englander in front of Science on a Sphere®, a room sized global display system that uses computers and video projectors to display planetary data onto a six foot diameter sphere, analogous to a giant animated globe. Researchers at NOAA developed Science On a Sphere® as an educational tool to help illustrate Earth System science to people of all ages. Animated images of atmospheric storms, climate change, and ocean temperature can be shown on the sphere which is used to explain complex environmental processes, such as global warming, in a way that is simultaneously intuitive and captivating. 

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