Ocean acidification: Coming soon

On Friday we will begin posting, twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays, an 18-part series on ocean acidification (OA).

Our goal is to provide you, our gentle readers, with the background you need to understand the chemical and physical processes behind OA. This will allow you to better understand a field that the rest of the world is waking up to and also to evaluate the commentary on the web. We were motivated to write these posts by the increasing number of comments – here and elsewhere – that are based on misconceptions about OA.

The posts require only high school science. However, this is deceptive, as some concepts and applications of ‘simple’ science can challenge 2^nd and 3^rd year university students. And that is probably why so much of the little that is written is based upon misconceptions.

Topics of the posts are given below:

OA is not OK. How calcium carbonate is made.

Thermodynamic duo. When is a chemical equation valid?

Wherever I lay my shell, that's my home. Why CaCO₃ is easy to make.

The f-word: pH. What is pH?

Reservoir dogs. Ocean carbon distribution, reservoir sizes.

Always take the weathering. How carbonate species get into the ocean.

Le Chatelier. Why it is not good enough for ocean acidification

170 to 1. What happens when we add acid to seawater?

Henry the 8^th I am. How CO₂ gets into the ocean.

Is the ocean blowing bubbles? Why the ocean is not a source of the CO_2.

Did we do it? Yes we did! Where is the CO₂?