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Overview

Potential Response
More rapid sea ice melt may accelerate the detrimental effects of acidification and its related processes.
Researcher
Glenn Cooper
Institute
Institute of Ocean Sciences,  Fisheries & Oceans Canada

Background
Scientists are undecided how sea ice melt will affect ocean acidification.

One school of thought is that sea ice loss will increase acidification as more open water is exposed to the atmosphere, increasing air to sea gas exchange and CO2 absorption by the seawater. In addition, sea ice meltwater is similar to freshwater, with lower concentrations of the type of dissolved carbon compounds that are useful to marine creatures to form their calcium carbonate armour.

However, another perspective maintains that the meltwater will ‘dilute’ the seawater, and may contain a form of carbon particle that will actually help to alleviate the effects of acidification, at least in the short-term.

Further research is therefore required.
Planned Research
To try to arrive at a conclusive answer to this question, sea ice cores from the Arctic Ocean will be analysed for their carbon content and in what form this carbon is trapped in the ice.

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IMAGE OF THE DAY
Last of the kit being shipped from Resolute Bay
Dom_explorer
posted by
Explorer Team
Tue 18 May
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Dom_icebase
posted by
Ice Base Team
Sat 01 May
The Ice Base Has Been Dismantled
The Ice Base has now been dismantled and the scientists have returned to their respective institutions to continue their research into ocean acidification....
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Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:52:45