Projected climate change impact on oceanic acidification

Background  

Anthropogenic CO₂ uptake by the ocean decreases the pH of seawater, leading to an 'acidification' which may have potential detrimental consequences on marine organisms 1]. Ocean warming or circulation alterations induced by climate change has the potential to slowdown the rate of acidification of ocean waters by decreasing the amount of CO₂ uptake by the ocean 2]. However, a recent study showed that climate change affected the decrease in pH insignificantly 3]. Here, we examine the sensitivity of future oceanic acidification to climate change feedbacks within a coupled atmosphere-ocean model and find that ocean warming dominates the climate change feedbacks.