Rising oceanic concentrations of CO
2
in
fl
uence the physiology,
development and survival of marine organisms, and thus the basic
functioning and critical life-support services that ocean ecosystems
provide will be different under future acidi
fi
ed ocean conditions
(
UNEP, 2010).
Increased atmospheric CO
2
has already raised the
acidity of the oceans by approximately 30 percent, making the
ocean more acidic than it has been in the last 650 000 years and
affecting marine life such as corals, microscopic plants and animals,
and
fi
sh (
WBGU, 2006
). Increased ocean acidity is likely to not only
affect the
‘
biological pump
’
and ocean food webs, but is also likely
to in
fl
uence the global carbon cycle, leading to an increase in the
rate of global warming (
Williams, 2009).