Coral Reefs: A Reef Resilience Toolkit Module

Ocean Chemistry Essentials

This section introduces you to some basics about ocean chemistry and how increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ultimately affects ocean chemistry and marine plants and animals. To begin this section, we suggest watching a simple demonstration of what happens when the ocean becomes more acidic. This demonstration is given by Dr. Jane Lubchenco, NOAA Administrator, and is something that can be adapted for your own purposes if you need to explain this process to a non-scientific audience.

Watch the NOAA Ocean Acidification Demo video with NOAA Administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, which identifies three key concepts about ocean acidification:

1. The chemistry of the ocean is dependent on the chemistry of the atmosphere (more CO2 in the atmosphere leads to more CO2 dissolved in the ocean).
2. More CO2 dissolved in the ocean makes the ocean more acidic.
3. Changes in ocean acidity impact marine organisms that have calcium carbonate shells.