Ease into Climate Change Instruction through Ocean Acidification.

Although climate change gamers the bull: of headlines, ocean acidification is an equally important issue that also results from our increasing consumption offossilfuels. As atmospheric (02 dissolves into the ocean, the oceanji pH decreases, making it increasingly difficult for organisms that build calcium carbonate skeletons to grow and thrive, Given that thesc marine calcifiers - such as corals, snails, shelljish, crustaccans, acidificaand plankton - often form the base of occanic food wcbs and are habitat and food resources for larger oceanic plants and animals (including humans), ocean acidijication poses a serious threat. In this article, we present a series of investigations that provide evidence that increases in anthropogenic sources of COz contribute to the acidification oj the ocean, and that an increasingly acidic ocean can negatively impact marine calcijiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]