Coral Reefs on Acid Lab

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Coral Reefs on Acid Lab

• Directions Follow the steps in each box. Use the
  pictures to help answer the questions. Answer the
  questions using both pictures written response.
  
• Write your answers on a separate piece of paper.
• Modified from InSTEP Dude whered the reef
  go?

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1. What are Coral Reefs?

• Where are they located? Zone?
• What are they made of?
• Who uses them?
• Why are they important?

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2. Coral Cover Observation

• What has happened to Coral Cover from 1977 to
  2002?
• Why do you think this has happened?
• How does this relate to question 1?
• Graph of Coral Cover
• See Figure 6. at http//www.climateshifts.org/?p
  6348

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3. Demo

• Add 5 to 8 drops of vinegar onto a shell or
  coral. Write your observations. You may need to
  use a microscope or hand-lens.
• Why is this happening? What is vinegar? What is
  the shell made of? (hint- think pH)

• How does this relate to question 2?

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4. Demo

• Take a small cup of salt water. Add pH indicator
  into it. What is the pH?
• Then, using a straw, blow bubbles into the cup
  for 15 to 20 seconds. What do you notice about
  the pH of Salt water after blowing bubbles into
  it?
• What are the bubbles made out of?

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5. CO2 Water ?

• What is happening to CO2 in this picture?
• How does this relate to question 4?

• See Carbon dioxide entering the water picture at
• http//askascientist.co.uk/chemistry/ocean-acidity
  -what-is-ph-anyway/

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6. CO2 concentration

• What is the trend?
• What is causing this trend?
• Where is some of the extra CO2 going?
• How does this relate to question 5?

• See Mauna Loa Carbon dioxide data at
• http//celebrating200years.noaa.gov/datasets/mauna
  /

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7. Mauna Loa Data 1985-2006
Fill in the BLANKS

• Carbonate (Calicum) levels are ___________
• pH is ____________
• CO2 concentration is _____________

Adapted from Ocean-acidification.net by
Wolf-gladrow et al., 1999 (9).
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8. CONCLUSION

• Because Carbon Dioxide levels are.
• This is causing the ocean to become.
• This is affecting coral reefs because

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9. What else depends on carbonate? List 5
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10. Acidification Projections
What if the CO2 amount trend continues, as is,
into our future? from Hoegh-Guldberg et al
(2007) 
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11. What can we (you) do? List 5