Claremont, Calif. (March 2, 2012) — Pitzer College Assistant Professor of Biology Branwen Williams has co-authored “The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification,” an article published in the March 2 edition of Science, a leading peer-reviewed journal of scientific research.
“The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification” examines the effects of excess carbon dioxide on the ocean. In recent years, some of the excess carbon dioxide produced from the burning of fossil fuels has dissolved in the ocean, causing a decrease in the pH of seawater, a phenomenon known as ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is a huge threat to the survival of certain organisms according to Williams.
“To better understand how ocean acidification may influence marine ecosystems, we turn to the geological record to review past events exhibiting elevated atmospheric CO2, global warming and ocean acidification over the past 300 million years of earth history,” Williams said of the research. “We find no past event is comparable to future projections of changes in ocean carbonate chemistry.”
Williams teaches biology at the W.M. Keck Science Department, a program of Claremont McKenna College, Pitzer College and Scripps College.
The article, “The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification”, can be found on the Science website.
