Ah Perseu. Perseus, Perseus, Perseus.

How are you? I am fine.

Obviously you've forgotten our little discussion about ocean acidification a while ago. You remember right?

To recap, the ocean acidification hypothesis does not, repeat not, rely on the assumption of no mixing into middle ocean depths. I gave whole host of page references and direct citations supporting this.

See the Royal society report page 9 and 10, where it actually shows the measured and modeled ocean acidification to a depth of greater than 4km! Also see Calderia and Wickett 2003.

Please, if you are going to make claims such as the one you made in this post, read the relevant literature to see if your claims have any basis.

To recap, the ocean acidification hypothesis is not, repeat not, anything other than a hypothesis.

The Royal society, Calderia and Wickett (2003) all make untested assumptions. The greatest of these assumptions is that they 'know' every physical, biological and chemical REACTION that occurs in all planetary ocean 3-space. THEY DON'T!

As it stands and as I have pointed out, it will take at least 100 years to test their hypothesis. Well within that time we are going to see a far worse tragedy many orders of magnitude worse than any imaginable climate change as nepotistic elitist elements (corporations, republicans and dynasties) of mankind destroy at least 5/8ths of his fellow man out of fear, greed and opportunism when oil stocks run dry. It won't take 100 years to prove this hypothesis. The Iraq, Iran, Syria and Nth Korean conflagrations over scarce oil supplies, a population expected to be around 8 billion by 2025 and US corp[orate takeovers of every major asset on the planet(including Quantas and the Snowy if Howard gets elected) indicate we are 1/3 of the way to Armageddon already. By contrast, climate change hypotheses are running in the sub 1% range, well within natural variability. They are hardly worthy of being called speculation, the research for which is every bit just a global corporate takeover of scientific institutions and thought.

After the 2025 armageddon, the oceans will get a reprieve from human despoilation. So perhaps their is a Social dimension to Le Chatelier's principle of chemical reaction resistance as well! This is something that the Royal society, backed by the British aristocracy, one of the biggest profiteering corporations, in the world is rather UNKEEN to research.

In short, don't worry about ocean acidity, just keep your eyes on the SHA map anomalies spewing out of the big US ports and watch them disappear along with landstrike hurricane after May.

Why? Because that's where the MONEY is!!

To view SHA maps use this link http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dataphod/work/trinanes/INTERFACE/index.html, choose a date, a region from the cameo global map and press GO.
Data goes back to 1993 for time sequence comparison analysis.

From the "Royal Society" report that is cited ocean acidification isn't a major worry:

EFFECTS OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION ON MICROORGANISMS
The evidence considered in Section 3.2 suggests that the
increase of CO2 in the surface oceans expected by 2100 is
unlikely to have any significant direct effect on
photosynthesis or growth of most micro-organisms in the
oceans.

EFFECTS OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION ON MULTICELLULAR ANIMALS
In the short term (20–40 years), projected increases in
atmospheric CO2 will produce minor impacts on
multicellular marine animals.

EFFECTS OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION ON CALCIFICATION
the lack of a clear understanding of the
mechanisms of calcification and its metabolic or
structural function means that it is difficult, at present,
to reliably predict the full consequences of CO2-induced
ocean acidification on the physiological and ecological
fitness of calcifying organisms.

A bit more work to do before proclaiming the end is nigh....

Overfishing is probably the biggest problem faced by our oceans today and one which should be addressed. The tenuous CO2 links to ocean warming, acidification and methane "burps" should be filed under "yet to be confirmed as plausible"

I have been trying to find that thread again Chris C but my recollection is that you supplied a load of bollocks masquerading as reference material. Do sent it again if you want.

Chris C, this quote from P9 of the RC report says it all.

"The simplest estimate, takes a situation where human CO2 emissions continue to be released on current trends; considers the surface oceans as a single ‘box’ at a constant temperature (25 oC) and salinity with an initial (pre-industrial) pH of 8.2 units, and assumes no mixing with the deeper oceans. Under these circumstances it is predicted that pH will fall to below 7.9 by 2100 (Zeebe
and Wolf-Gladrow 2001)."

The other more complex modelling projects out 400 years and is of little relevance to current projections. The assumption of constant temperature is also quite suss.

Hi Persues,

The next paragraph on (pg 9 and 10) explains the use of the Lawerence-Livermore General Ocean Circulation model, down to 4km. The simpler model was referenced, but the more complicated modelling was used for the basis of projections in the report (see the summary page vi). The results of the more complicated modeling in the simple modeling are actually quite close for shorter (<100 years) time scales.

As another poster pointed out, the report clearly states that "Research into the impacts of high concentrations of CO2 in the oceans is in its infancy and needs to be developed rapidly". The Royal Society report, and indeed, ocean acidification, are not the largest of worries in the ocean.

My own concern is the crash of vital fish stocks (much like the documented crash of North Atlantic Cod), and the damage wrought to coral reefs from a variety of causes (not just warmer oceans, but also pest introduction, like certain star fish, water polution etc...). However, ocean acidification may adversly affect the ability to certain species to recover.

As stated in pages 21-22 and 25 of the RS report, it is expected that decreased pH will result in slower calcification rates, and the exposure of certain creatures to increased stress.

The world's oceans (are coral reefs in particular) are already in enough trouble without climate change or increasing acidifation adding to the problems.