BIO 469 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Ocean Acidification, Sea Butterfly, Pteropoda
13 Jun 2018
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Peril of the sea butterfly
Pteropods - A case study on the biology of ocean acidification
● The ocean is a shared resource and an important global environment, providing food
and oxygen (half that we breathe) while balancing the world's temperature, water and a
lot of other chemical budgets
● The changing ocean
○ Human activities are disrupted by the balance of the ocean causing
■ Pollution
● Chemicals, plastic
■ Overfishing
■ Hypoxia
● Because of warming and nutrients
■ Warming
● Because of CO2
■ Acidification
● Because of CO2
● Concerned about acidification
○ This stress seriously damages the shared resources that the ocean provides
○ Disrupted food webs and biogeochemical cycles
○ Direct loss of fisheries
○ Loss of reef tourism and protection
The changing ocean
● Ocean acidification
○ The burning of fossil fuels releases ~11 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atm
every year and ~ 30% ends up dissolving into the world's ocean
○ In consequence the average pH of seawater has dropped by .1 and expect a .3
change
■ This change is happening 10 times faster than the last major OA event,
which happened 55 millions years ago and was associated with a major
extinction of some calcifying ocean animals (foraminifera)
○ Chemistry of ocean acidification (diagram)
■ CO2
● Affects photosynthesis, increase
■ Hydrogen ions
● Ionic imbalance
○ Affects diffusion gradients and Proton Pumps (use more
energy to remain in homeostasis)
○ Protein denaturing (enzymes are proteins! AND most
cellular structures have proteins in them)
■ Carbonate ions
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Pteropods - a case study on the biology of ocean acidification. The ocean is a shared resource and an important global environment, providing food and oxygen (half that we breathe) while balancing the world"s temperature, water and a lot of other chemical budgets. Human activities are disrupted by the balance of the ocean causing. This stress seriously damages the shared resources that the ocean provides. The burning of fossil fuels releases ~11 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atm every year and ~ 30% ends up dissolving into the world"s ocean. In consequence the average ph of seawater has dropped by . 1 and expect a . 3 change. This change is happening 10 times faster than the last major oa event, which happened 55 millions years ago and was associated with a major extinction of some calcifying ocean animals (foraminifera) Affects diffusion gradients and proton pumps (use more energy to remain in homeostasis)
