Brief Description About An Environmental Event

Sample Environmental Events Log Entries Ocean Acidification This article from the Environmental News Network caught my attention because I rarely hear about the oceanic events beyond comments concerning the ocean’s temperature. The article draws attention to the acidification of the ocean that occurs when the waters absorb carbon dioxide. In history, the ocean’s pH balance changed with pollutant CO2, but the rate and amount of change was less than current increases. If the rate of pollution continues, calcifiers already struggling may go extinct as some species did in historically when the chemical changes were less dramatic. This item relates directly to what we covered in Chapter 7. Source: Winter, Allison. “Ocean Acidification Occurring at Unprecedented rates”.ENN. Sept. 25,2012 http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/45006!

Ocean Salinity and Climate Change NASA is taking an expedition to the saltiest part of the North Atlantic to study how the saltiness of the ocean relates to climate change as a part of their Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS). I find this interesting because biologists already use pH as a measurement of health for aquatic biomes, why not test salt-to-water variation to view oceanic changes? This voyage will increase knowledge of the acceleration of the Earth’s water cycle. Oceanographers claim that the ocean records rainfall better than landmasses and translates these fluctuations in to salinity changes. Along with recording new salinity levels, the researchers are delving into the drivers of these changes. Hopefully, the results of the SPURS expedition will yield information that helps studies of other areas with major salinity changes and how they will affect the water cycle in surrounding areas. This topic relates to material in Chapter 11.

Source: Cole, Steve. NASA – NASA Voyage Set To Explore Link Between Sea Saltiness And Climate. (n.d.). Retrieved October 6, 2012, from http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/sep/HQ_12-305_Ocean_Salinity_SPURS.html

Changes in Arctic Winds According to a study by “scientists from Rutgers University in New Jersey, the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, and the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, a partnership of NOAA and the University of Washington.”, Arctic winds that normally travel west to east circulating the cold air are now moving south to north. This change further warms the Arctic from the warmer air currents. Since 2007, the air currents from the south are increasing contributing the record ice loss this summer. The article caught my eye because the change in air currents and their immediate results of ice loss will dramatically affect the Northern hemisphere causing drastic climate changes. This topic relates to what we covered in Chapter 5.

Source: Arctic summer wind shift could affect sea ice loss and U.S./European weather, says NOAA-led study. (n.d.). Retrieved October 14, 2012, from http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2012/20121010_arcticwinds.html

 

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