Transcript
Dubbed 'Climate Change's Evil Twin', ocean acidification, having been stable for 50 million years, has increased by 30 percent since pre-industrial times.
Otago University's marine biogeochemistry specialist, professor Cliff Law, says it's a global issue but it has discrete local effects.
"In the tropics, in the Pacific Islands for example, maybe the biggest issue there is going to be around coral reefs. We know that these are ecosystems that are already under stress from a number of different pressures but ocean acidification is another one of those."
Dr Law says coral reefs will increasingly struggle to maintain their skeletal structure which will affect the stability of the reef.
Worse, he says ocean acidification is projected to increase by 150 percent before the end of the century.
Reefs provide protection from storm surges and cyclones, as well as abundant food sources for Pacific people and marine life.
In Fiji, the tracking of ocean acidification using the pH scale only began in recent years according to ocean specialist Kushaal Raj at Fiji's climate change office.
"The ocean pH is dropping. This has been tremendously sped up or accelerated by the increase in the absorption of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere because the ocean happens to be a global carbon sink for carbon dioxide."
Mr Raj says satellite tracking provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows acidification and sea temperature rise this year spell more trouble for Fiji's reefs.
"...because of the prediction of a high coral bleaching event, and then there's dropping pH which obviously affects marine organisms because they are very sensitive to minute temperature changes as well as pH. There are very few species which are tolerant and, when it comes to ocean or marine life, species are very sensitive with pH and temperature."
The oceanography officer for the Pacific's environmental agency SPREP has been focusing on a project to enhance local pH buffers for coral reef ecosystems like Fiji's.
Duncan McIntosh says this adaptation and resilience strategy involves mangroves and sea grasses.
"These are the plants that photsynthesise in the vicinity of a calcifying ecosystem like a coral reef. And in the process of photosynthesising these plants sequester some of the carbon that otherwise would be absorbed by the seawater and lower the pH."
Dr McIntosh says by cultivating these plants ocean acidification can be buffered locally.
He says it also provides health benefits to the entire ecosystem and is a strategy which can be adopted across the region.
Dr McIntosh says the summit brought together delegates from around the world who had different experiences with a common problem.
"A lot of our concerns were overlapping but we were able to share experiences and identify gaps in the research, gaps in what we know about how we can adapt at the local level to this problem, and kind of charting a way forward together for the Commonwealth."
Duncan McIntosh says quantifying the effects on local communities will now be possible with the help of the international community.
He says while addressing ocean acidification at a global level requires global action on greenhouse gas emissions, resilience and adaptation can still happen at a local and regional level.
