Lamont-Doherty Study: Winter Bering Sea World's Most Acidic Ocean Ph 7.7 (Global Average 8.1)

The world’s most acidic ocean waters are found in the winter in the Bering Sea, according to studies by scientists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who have released a series of maps tracking changes in global marine acidity.

With its broad continental shelf, shallow waters, ocean currents that deposit nutrients from around the world, and profusion of tiny plankton that form the base of the food web for marine life, the Bering Sea is home to “wonderful fisheries” as well as large populations of marine mammals, said Taro Takahashi, a Lamont-Doherty geochemist who led a project mapping ocean acidity levels.

But those characteristics make the Bering Sea ideal for acidity, particularly in the winter when low temperatures allow water to hold maximum carbon dioxide, Takahashi said. “You can’t have it both ways,” he said.

The Bering Sea’s waters can be acidic enough to register pH readings of about 7.7, according to data collected by Takahashi, his colleagues and by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and other organizations. Some spots in the Gulf of Alaska register similarly acidic readings, according to the new maps. That compares to a global average of 8.1 on the logarithmic pH scale, which runs from the most acidic measurement of zero to the most alkaline measurement of 14.
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http://www.adn.com/article/20141121/new-maps-show-bering-sea-holds-worlds-most-acidic-ocean-waters