The purpose of the lessons is to teach about ocean acidification, its causes and impacts on marine life especially zooplankton, an essential part of marine food webs. Included in the materials is background information on ocean acidification. There are four different activities included in this document. To do all four you should plan on at least two 45 minute periods. The activities define and explain the process of acidification as well as its impacts on shelled organism. The materials can be adapted and used for grades 5-6 and adding more indepth information makes it suitable for middle and high school students. Educational levels: Middle school, High school

Vicki Osis

English

Digital Library for Earth System Education

 1 
 
Ocean Acidification  
Vicki Osis / Eugene Williamson 
 
Ocean acidification is defined as the drop in pH that occurs due to the absorption of carbon 
dioxide by ocean waters, C02 +H20 creates carbonic acid. The change in pH we have already 
experienced is the biggest change to oceans in the past 20 million years and the change is 
happening so quickly marine organisms cannot adapt to the change.  Read through the 
background information page 4-5 before developing and adapting the lessons for your class.  
 
Purpose:  The purpose of this lesson is to teach about ocean acidification, its causes and 
impacts on marine life especially zooplankton, an essential part of marine food webs. 
 
Time:  There are four different activities included in this document.  To do all four you should 
plan on at least two 45 minute periods. The activities define and explain the process of 
acidification as well as its impacts on shelled organism.  
 
Grade levels: Pick and choose from the activities and background information and fit it to 
your classroom needs. This information can be adapted for grades 5-12 to provide an 
introduction to plankton and its role in ocean food chains.  Grades 8-12 can explore plankton 
and its role in food chains, and learn about the problems ocean acidification is causing. Also 
included is a pH testing activity and a list of various student friendly energy conservation 
measures to reduce C02 emissions.  The last piece is step-by-step outline of the chemistry of 
acidification that could be used with high school students.  
 
Objectives: Students will: 
1 know that the tons of C02 we have added to the atmosphere is lowering the pH of ocean  
waters, a process called ocean acidification. 
2 understand that acidification chemically changes dissolved calcium so that it can no longer 
be utilized by shelled creatures for shell building. 
3 understand how acidification can affect shelled creatures in the sea. 
4 understand that the base of the food chains and webs in the sea are plankton. There are 
phytoplankton (plants) and zooplankton (animals).   
5 know that many zooplankton species have delicate calcium carbonate shells as well as a few 
of the phytoplankton such as the Coccolithophores, that have microscopic plating of calcite.  
These are found in all oceans of the world, and are very abundant in Antarctic waters. 
http://tinyurl.com/7cplgk3 
6 be able to identify sources of C02 emissions and understand how we are increasing C02  
levels in our atmosphere. 
7 be able to identify ways of conserving energy, and begin to practice conservation measures 
to reduce C02 emissions. 
 
 
Equipment 
Microscopes or a video microscopy set up for the classroom.  If unfamiliar with video 
microscope equipment see here:  
http://tinyurl.com/c6scovv 
 
 Several models of microscope video cameras and monitors are available for purchase on the 
web and some models can be found on Amazon.  A video camera that fits on the eyepiece of 
the microscope has been used in our labs for years and has proven to be a valuable aid for 
 2 
classroom instruction. Check out the PupilCAM on this website:  http://tinyurl.com/7nek9ng 
or other choices here:  http://tinyurl.com/7c8jcmx These websites are starting points and do 
not constitute a recommendation of any one product by the author. 
 
Materials-       
  Plankton net 
 Plankton sieve  (For a description how to build one see Page 7.)  
 Litmus - pH paper 
 Plankton guide for your local area, if available 
 Carbonated soft drinks 
 Calcium shells of any type:  Oysters, clams, snails or the like   
 Vinegar or other weak acids from your lab 
 Images of ocean plankton See the samples on these URLS or search for webs typical of your 
local area.  
 
 http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/File:Zooplankton.jpeg  and  
 http://tinyurl.com/6wd27um or http://tinyurl.com/coyebyh 
 
 
Activity 1.   Collecting and viewing plankton 
 
Collect a plankton sample if you are near the ocean, bay, or pond (fresh water plankton).   Pull 
the plankton net through the water for a short time or pour buckets of water through the net.   
Five minutes towing or several buckets should gather enough for this lab. Pour the contents of 
your plankton sample through a plankton sieve until only a few drops are left on the netting. 
(see page 6 for sieve construction instructions). With a pipette or eye-dropper collect the 
sample and place it on a microscope slide.  Slip the slide under the microscope for 
videomicrosopy or use individual microscope to view the plankton. The monitor screen   
should be filled with tiny zooplankters darting about on the screen as well as phytoplankton 
species.  
 
Using a local plankton guide identify as many of the species as you can and also identify those 
that have shells, ie copepods.  Depending on the time of year you may be able to identify 
barnacle and crab larvae etc. 
 
If you cannot collect live plankton, set up a tank in the classroom and raise brine shrimp. 
 
Project the illustrations of food webs and food chains.  Some samples are here, 
http://tinyurl.com/6wd27um or locate images of marine food webs and chains from your local 
regions if available.  
 
Discuss with students the importance of phytoplankton that are plants.  Identify and discuss the 
tiny microscopic zooplankton, animals. These are the key to supporting life in the sea. Obtain 
a guide to plankton for your region and become familiar with common species. Copepods are 
tiny, shelled zooplankters that are abundant in plankton samples in most areas. Copepods are 
pictured here:  http://tinyurl.com/87s64o3. Shelled zooplankton includes krill, amphipods, crab 
and barnacle larvae, among others. 
  
With the food web projected on the screen, use a marker to black out several of the shelled 
zooplankton to indicate their loss from acidification. On the next trophic level black out or 
cover one or two small fish to indicate they die from lack of food due to the loss of the 
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zooplankton. At the next level remove one of the big fish to show loss from its reduced food 
supply.  Remind students that it takes many, many zooplankton to support one small fish and 
many small fish to support one big fish and so forth to the top animals of the web. This 
illustrates how acidification can affect the whole web of life in the oceans.  
 
Activity 2 Test the effect of acid on shells. 
Equipment and materials  
Small plastic cups 
Vinegar 
Shell chips or thin pieces of shells. 
Demonstrate the effect of acid on shelled animals such as oyster, mussels, snails, or crabs. 
Place a shell chip into a cup and cover it with vinegar. Select a thin-shelled specimen or break 
the shell and use a thin chip for best results. An inch is plenty.  Test the shell for strength 
before placing it in the vinegar. Poke at it with a probe try to break a piece of the shell with 
your fingers.   
Observe the shell immediately after it is placed in the vinegar. The shell should immediately 
start to release bubbles. The bubbles may look like a faint white cloud as the acid dissolves 
away the shell.  Discuss with students that the chemical reaction is releasing bubbles of C02 
into the water.  
Leave the shell soaking over night and the next day again test for strength, again try to break 
the shell fragment with your fingers. Poke the shell with a probe to see if the vinegar has 
dissolved enough calcium carbonate to make it more brittle.  
NOTE  - Different shells may react differently to the vinegar test.  Run a test on the shells 
you plan to use prior to presenting this activity.  
NOTE:  If you have only 45 minutes or 1 hour to present the plankton, plus the affects of acid 
on shells, prepare the containers of shell chips in vinegar the night before.  Make up enough to 
provide a container for every 3-4 students. Explain to students the shell has soaked in acid 
overnight.  Again use the test for strength. Compare the difference between the vinegar soaked 
and the fresh shell.  
Activity 3 Testing acidity of carbonated drinks 
Materials 
Carbonated soft drinks, club soda, or sparkling water  
Small containers such as plastic cups  
Litmus paper  
 4 
Just as carbonated drinks have C02 pumped into them which results in their being acidic, the 
oceans are absorbing C02 from the air and the pH is being lowered.  This is called 
acidification. The mixing of the C02 in both the drinks and oceans produce carbonic acid.  
Use litmus paper to test the acidity of soft drinks or carbonated water.  Carbonated water (also 
known as club soda, soda water, sparkling water, seltzer, or fizzy water) is water into which 
carbon dioxide gas has been dissolved under pressure, a process that causes the water to 
become effervescent (bubbly)  Carbon dioxide and water form carbonic acid (H2CO3),[2] which 
gives the water a slightly sour taste with a pH between 3 and 4.  If you can test ocean water the 
pH the results will be higher, at about 8 on the scale.  (See Background Information that beings 
at the bottom of this page, for a discussion of pH scale and changes occurring in the ocean) 
 
Discussion:  Solutions - What should we do? 
Discussion: Acidification is already causing problems and the impacts will become more 
severe.  What can we all do to keep C02 out of the air to slow ocean acidification?  We know 
that using cars that burn gasoline adds C02 to the air.   Much of the electricity used in the US 
is produced by burning coal and releases huge amounts of C02.  Jet planes burn jet fuel that 
contributes to the amounts C02 into the air.  
What can be done to reduce the amount of C02 being released into the air? 
  Electric cords with boxes continue to draw electricity if left plugged into the wall. 
  Cell phones are a good example.  They are called vampire cords and include, 
 computers, VCRs, televisions, and stereos. The savings is small, but using the switch 
 on the power strip makes it easy to switch them off. 
 Close doors and windows and turn off lights that are not needed. 
 Do not waste.  Everything is delivered to our stores by trucks  
 Turn down the heat, or if air conditioning, use in moderation. Walk or ride bikes to 
 school rather than being driven. 
  Explore the school to spot wasteful practices.  Are cans recycled? Are computer cords 
 disconnected or power strips flipped off?  How much food waste is there in the school 
 lunch-rooms? Could some of that food be composted?   
 Check Green Schools http://tinyurl.com/8xtxs5a and Cool Schools 
 http://tinyurl.com/77g6opr  for conservation measures on a school wide basis.  
Background information 
Ocean acidification is the name given to the decrease in pH in ocean waters caused when C02 
is absorbed by the water. C02 is released into the air when we burn gasoline in our cars or 
from burning coal to produce electricity.  Where the air meets the ocean surface the C02 is 
dissolved into the water and carbonic acid is formed. C02- H20 = H2CO3. 
 5 
 
Illustration- Pacific Marine environmental Laboratories. 
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/Ocean+Acidification 
The pH scale is a numerical scale with 7 being neutral.  Above 7 is basic and below 7 is acidic. 
The pH scale: is used to rank acids and bases with the numbers 0-14. The numbers 1-6 are 
assigned to acids, with 0 being the strongest acid. The numbers 8-14 are assigned to bases, 
with 14 being the strongest base. The number 7 represents pH level that is neutral, neither an 
acid nor a base.  
 
pH scale see:  http://www.greatscience.com/think/projects.php?id=21 
Ocean acidification is a drop in pH on that scale.  Scientists report there has been a decrease of 
pH in all ocean waters from 8.25 to 8.14 since the onset of the Industrial Revolution.  That 
change represents an increase of 30% in the hydrogen ion concentration. This is the biggest 
change to ocean pH in the last 20 million years.  Like the magnitude scale of earthquakes, one  
unit on the pH scale reflects a change of a factor of 10. The 0.1 pH change means there are 
now 30 percent more hydrogen ions in the water. Scientists also warn that unless we quickly 
reduce our C02 emissions the acidification will continue and we will experience an increase of 
.3 – .4 points on the pH scale.  That would mean a 90-120%, other sources predict an increase 
of up to 140% increase. Without action to reduce C02 scientists warn that we can create an 
acid spike more intense than the earth has seen in the past 8,000,000 years. The change we are 
currently experiencing is happening too quickly and too intensely for ocean animals to adapt. 
Source: Real Climate http://tinyurl.com/y44sg3  
Although ocean pH has not dropped into the acidic side of the pH scale, the change has been 
enough to disrupt shell formation in sea creatures as the carbonic acid chemically changes 
calcium carbonate to the point that shelled organisms can no longer utilize it. This is a threat to 
tiny, fragile-shelled zooplankters, as well as the microscopic larvae of shelled creatures 
including clams, mussels, crabs and oysters. The second problem is the acid may become 
 6 
eventually become strong enough it will dissolve the shells of adult animals and become a 
threat to corals, as well as a many other economically important animals. 
Scientists report that the Pacific will be more severely affected by acidification than the 
Atlantic. But that does NOT mean that organisms in the Atlantic are safe from damage. The 
reason for the difference is the west coast experiences upwelling, a process that brings 
nutrients to the surface. Upwelling areas are some of the most productive regions in the 
oceans. Pacific Northwest coastal upwelling brings  “old” bottom water to the surface. This 
water is already depleted of dissolved calcium compounds, aragonite and calcite. These are the 
compounds that shelled creatures, from plankton to clams, need to build their shells.  The 
source of the old water is from downwelling areas off Vancouver Island, Canada.  
Downwelling delivers water to depths on the ocean shelf where it is transported down the 
coastline to areas along northern California to Oregon and Washington coasts.  It takes 40 
years for the water to travel that distance and during that time the calcium carbonate has been 
depleted.  When strong, steady NW winds blow during the spring and summer months, the 
surface waters are moved and are deflected off shore by the Coriolis effect. This water is 
replaced by deep-water upwelling to the surface near the coastlines.   The upwelling brings the 
old, calcium carbonate depleted Canadian waters to the surface where it mixes with surface 
water that, now too, is depleted of useable calcium for shell building.  Plankton as well as 
spring spawners such as oysters and razor clams, need calcium carbonate for their larvae to 
build shells and flourish.  Without enough calcium carbonate, the creatures cannot build their 
shells and will die.    
Oyster hatcheries in the Washington and Oregon have recently experienced near total losses of 
their spring spawn of oyster larvae, in 2009 and 2010.  Researchers linked the problem to the 
lack of enough dissolved calcium carbonate to build their shells. They concluded that the cause 
was the drop in pH of ocean waters.  With acidification the calcium carbonate is chemically 
changed into a form that cannot be absorbed by the creatures for shell building that resulted in 
the losses. The problem in the hatcheries gives us an indication of what is very likely 
happening in near shore waters to zooplankton and to the larvae of various shelled creatures 
found in the affected areas.  Source NOAA Fisheries Researcher 
How acidification was discovered – an example of how science is conducted. 
Ocean acidification offers educators an opportunity to teach students how science is 
conducted. The drop in pH was discovered on a NOAA research cruise in the Pacific. 
NOAA did not immediately announce to the world that ocean acidification was 
occurring but rather sent out a notice to the research vessels around the globe, 
including Russian, Australian, and European vessels. All vessels were requested to test 
the pH of the area of their cruise. At the end of the next year the results from all vessels 
found the pH drop of .1 in all oceans and ocean regions of the planet. Only after that 
confirmation was the announcement released. The same holds true for all scientific 
research. Before research reports are published in journals they must go through peer 
review. Scientists in related fields review the report to check procedures and analysis of 
data. Only those that pass this review are approved for publication. This quality control 
has served us well and ensured that the most accurate information is presented. 
 
 
 7 
How to build and use a plankton sieve. 
Materials . 
PCV pipe about 4-5 inches –in diameter and the pipe at least ¼ inch thick. (you need the 
thickness to cement the netting in place..  
PCV pipe cement. 
Plankton netting from an old net, , or order a yard of netting from a supply house, Wildco 
Nitex netting if you can afford it.   http://tinyurl.com/6r8jmq4 about a six inch diameter 
piece is needed.  Try nylon stockings or other fabric but the results will not likely be as 
effective.  
Instructions  
Cut the pipe into 4 - 5 inch high rings.  Spread a thin layer of the pipe cement on the bottom lip 
of your cut pipe.  Lay the plankton netting, nitex cloth, over the cut edge with the glue. Stretch 
the cloth so it makes good contact with the lip.  Let dry.  Trim off any excess the netting.  Use 
rubber gloves or be careful not to get the PCV pipe glue on your fingers. 
To concentrate the plankton taken from a brief tow from the shore or dock, pour the contents 
form the plankton net through the sieve.  The “catch” will be concentrated into just a few 
drops.  Collect with eye dropper or pipette and place on a slide for viewing under a 
microscope.  
 
Chemical reactions of carbonic acid with calcium compounds in seawater 
 
When CO2 reacts with seawater it creates carbonic acid, lowering the pH of the of the ocean 
water.  At the same time, the reduction in pH also reduces the availability of carbonate ions, 
which play an important role in shell formation in a number of marine organisms.  
 
The chemical process of acidification is listed below.   
CO2  dissolves in water to form carbonic acid. In the oceans, carbonic acid releases hydrogen 
ions (H+), reducing pH, and bicarbonate ions  (HCO3-). 
(1) 
CO2 + H2O => H+ + HCO3- The additional hydrogen ions released by carbonic acid bind to 
carbonate ions (CO32), forming additional HCO3 
(2)   
H+ + CO32- => HCO3- This reduces the concentration of CO32-, making it harder for marine 
creatures to take up CO32- to form the calcium carbonate needed to build their exoskeletons.  
(3) 
Ca2+ + CO32- => CaCO3    
The two main forms of calcium carbonate used by marine creatures are calcite and aragonite. 
Decreasing the amount of carbonate ions in the  water makes conditions more difficult to build 
shells for both calcite users  (phytoplankton, foraminifera and coccolithophore algae), and 
aragonite users (corals, shellfish, pteropods and heteropods). 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 


Ocean Acidification

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