Acidification of Water by CO2

TL;DR

This paper argues that increased atmospheric CO2 will have minimal harmful effects on aquatic life due to natural buffering, with pH changes comparable to natural diurnal variations.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative review of carbonate chemistry, buffering capacity, and thermodynamics related to ocean acidification, challenging common concerns.

Findings

Doubling CO2 reduces seawater pH from 8.18 to 7.93

pH change is within natural diurnal and latitudinal variations

Buffering capacity minimizes pH fluctuations in natural waters

Abstract

Fundamental inorganic chemistry shows that increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2 will have no harmful effect on organisms that live in the natural waters of the Earths, and may well benefit them. Alkalinity and dissolved CO2 give high buffering capacity to most natural waters and minimize the change of pH from external influences. For example, doubling the atmospheric concentration of CO2 from 430 ppm to 860 ppm would reduce the pH of representative sea water at a temperature of 25 C from pH = 8.18 to pH = 7.93. This change is comparable to diurnal pH changes in biologically productive surface waters, due to photosynthetic fixation of dissolved inorganic carbon during the day and respiration at night. The change is also less than the variations of pH with latitude, longitude and depth in the oceans. This paper includes a quantitative review of the carbonate chemistry of seawater and freshwater, the buffering capacity, the Revelle factor, the transport of calcium carbonate in ground water, the formation of flowstone, and the classic use of limewater to detect gaseous CO2. The paper concludes with a brief review of those parts of chemical thermodynamics that are involved in ocean acidification.