Global Ocean Governance and Ocean Acidification

Among many other impacts, the rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂), primarily induced by increased rates of fossil fuel combustion, are changing the ocean’s chemistry (Guidetti and Danavaro 2018). The resulting increased uptake of more CO₂ by the ocean is making the ocean more acidic leading to deleterious harm to marine ecosystems. This ocean acidification problem needs to be seen as an increased pressure on marine living resources, which are already under intense physicochemical and biological stress due to increased ocean warming (IPCC 2013), changes in their ecosystems (Milazzo et al. 2019), and the introduction of alien, competing species (Essl et al. 2020). For example, one of the well-known effects of ocean acidification is the lowering of calcium carbonate saturation states, which negatively impacts shell-forming marine organisms that range widely from plankton to benthic molluscs, echinoderms, and corals. The potential for marine organisms to adapt to increasing CO₂ and its broader implication to ocean ecosystems are still not fully understood, as are those processes that tend to exacerbate ocean acidification, especially within coastal areas.

The most effective way to limit ocean acidification is to act on climate change by implementing solutions to continue reducing CO₂ emissions. However, the management of ocean acidification requires a stronger prioritization toward managing and reducing multiple stressors. Research priorities to incorporate ocean acidification into ocean governance are therefore strongly and urgently recommended.