Using this graphic and referring to it is encouraged, and please use it in presentations, web pages, newspapers, blogs and reports.
For any form of publication, please include the link to this page and give the cartographer/designer credit (in this case Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal)
Orr, James C. 2005. Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms. Nature, vol 437, 681-686.
Uploaded on Saturday 25 Feb 2012
Acidification due to climate change - impacts for oceans and coral reefs
Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal
As carbon concentrations in the atmosphere increase from land use changes and emissions from fossil fuels - so do concentrations in the ocean, with resultant acidification as a natural chemical process. The skeletons of coldwater coral reefs may dissolve, perhaps already within a few decades. The impacts will be greatest at high latitudes. This will have an impact on all marine organisms with calcerous shells and body parts, in addition to coral reefs this includes shellfish and plankton.