| | | If that was the case, docs wouldn't say 7.2 is acidosis. Do we live in an ocean of blood?
Because a doctor is using a "term" to describe INCREASED acidity in the blood does NOT mean that the blood is acid.
The PH of human blood is regulated by the Kidneys, which is why urine is generally highly acid.
What's the PH of a tomato's juice?
About 4.3-4.9 PH
Is the soil it grows in the same acidity?
Generally tomatoes thrive in soil acidity of 6 - 6.8 PH
So do tomatoes grow best in alkaline soil (because the soil is less acid that the actually tomato fruit)?
Look at Step 7 of the following link on growing tomatoes hydroponically..
wikihow.com
That's about the closest thing to an ocean environment that can be represented..
So plants CAN grow in more highly acid waters..
The REAL problem is encouraging the growth of the PROPER kind of phytoplankton..
We want diatoms and coccoliths that have external shells. Coccoliths grow Calcium Carbonate "spheres", while Diatoms utilize silica. We want them to flourish because the ones that die, sink to the depths, taking their captured carbon with them. The ones that get eaten will surrender their carbon to their predator, which will excrete excess carbon in their feces, again to sink to the ocean floor.
Both Diatoms and Coccoliths produce their own food via photosynthesis. The more food they produce, the more able they are to produce their "spheres" and frustules. And there is a constant repair operation that occurs in both based upon surrounding PH of the water. But the more they can produce food, the more able they are to flourish.
The secret, as show by the Redfield Ratio, is IRON.. in a HNLC zone, add iron and you will see each atom of Iron enable phytoplankton to sequester 83,000 atoms of Carbon, most of which will sink to the ocean floor.
Now let's go back to that article on Pteropods. I found an interesting link about them and why they might be more susceptible to having their shells "etched"..
'The aragonite skeleton of pteropods dissolves more easily in corrosive waters than the low-magnesium calcite that typifies many clams and other molluscs,' explains Hall-Spencer. 'But now we think that it's not as simple as that. It depends partly on how stressed organisms are by other factors, such as lack of food. It also depends on their shape and their ability to protect their skeletons.'
It is possible that the rising levels of CO2 are boosting coccolithophore numbers by causing them to photosynthesise more and produce more energy.
planetearth.nerc.ac.uk
Get that part in red? LACK OF FOOD (ie: phytoplankton) may be making it difficult for them to repair their shells, or to thicken them. With a 40% reduction in phyto-plankton pteropods could well be starving.
Also from that link..
Plankton sits at the bottom of the food chains, where it underpins all of our marine food sources. So if numbers drop significantly it could lead to food shortages, particularly in countries where people eat lots of seafood and fish.
Without improved monitoring, researchers say they will struggle to accurately test the consequences of ocean acidification.
'CO2 is driving down the pH of water, but finding evidence for that and its ecological effects is proving tricky. Most work is done in the lab, so there's not much good long term data on changes in the water,' says Hall-Spencer.
Get that part in red? Most of the research is being done IN THE LAB, yet many AGW/Acidity scientists are ALREADY drawing conclusions about CO2. But they are not connecting the EXISTING 40%+ decline in phytoplankton to the extra CO2 that is saturating the oceans. Chicken or Egg argument..
And since adding Iron Sulphate has been PROVEN to result in massive blooms of phytoplankton, enabling them to produce sufficient chlorophyll to utilize the other available nutrients, they can produce the necessary energy to maintain their "skeletons" and flourish..
But all of this still in the realm of "theory" backed by observable facts.. What we don't know are all the details and whether using even smaller Iron particles will exponentially increase phytoplankton blooms and have a dramatic impact on drawing down dissolved CO2 in the surrounding waters (which will then be capable of absorbing more CO2 from the atmosphere).
Do the research... ENCOURAGE more research into Iron Fertilization rather than sending SWAT teams against people willing to spend their own money to prove the theory.
Hawk |
|
