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Thursday, September 12, 2024

Ocean Acidification Projections

The other day I gave the data on global ocean acidification, which I'm reproducing below. But first, here are the projections from the IPCC AR6 (WG1 Figure SPM.8c p22 of SPM):



On the top figure, the black line is the data, which matches the bottom. Of the two projections, maybe SSP2-4.5 is the most likely, with SSP3-7.0 if we're naughty. So a pH decline of about 0.15 by 2100, maybe 0.35. 

[The "4.5" and "7.0" represents the total forcing from...everything, in Watts/m2. The AR6 WG1 was published on 9 August 2021.]

And these curves don't stop declining after 2100.

I don't know if a pH decline of 0.35 in a century is large for aquatic animals or not. I suspect they've gotten used to a pretty stable pH over the Holocene. I don't know a lot about this subject, which I've seen people write is "the other global warming problem."

Comments welcome, especially from fish and other ocean dwellers.

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