Now it’s in the U.S. backyard: elevated pH levels in the Pacific, within 20 miles of the coast, documented for the first time.
The data are reported in a study authored by Richard Feely, Christopher Sabine, J. Marting Hernandez-Ayon, Debby Ianson, and Burke Hales, summarized in Science Express.
The area studied is known for its seasonal upwellings of water from the deeper ocean. It seems especially alarming because this water is at least 50 years old, and its showing higher acidity. Which means that, because the level of CO2 in the atmosphere has been steadily increasing, we can expect that upwellings will show steadily increasing acidity.
