Environment

Acidic Arctic Threatening Marine Life

Global greenhouse gas emissions have caused the level of acidity in the Arctic Ocean to rise 30 percent since the dawn of the Industrial Age, threatening to bring dire consequences to the region’s fragile ecosystem.

Delegates to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program conference in Bergen, Norway, were told that the pollution has caused pH levels to reach their lowest levels in the Arctic for at least the last 55 million years.

The Arctic is most vulnerable to acidification because its cold waters can absorb more carbon dioxide.

Its extensive freshwater inflow also makes it less able to chemically neutralize the acidification effects of the greenhouse gas.

It would take tens of thousands of years for the Arctic Ocean to return to the acidity levels that prevailed before the mid-1800s even if all CO2 emissions were halted today, scientists say.

The current acid levels threaten some species with a direct risk of extinction, and fish stocks may also be affected.