November 14, 2025 — New research from the University of St Andrews has found that some coastal areas will become much more acidic than previously anticipated. With added atmospheric CO2, these areas are acidifying more quickly than thought, posing an existential threat to coastal economies around the world.
Because atmospheric CO2 and ocean pH (acidity) are tightly coupled, the more CO2 that is released into the atmosphere, the more is absorbed by seawater, making the ocean progressively more acidic.
However, in a paper published in Nature Communications, researchers, using the California Current as an example, show that oceanic upwelling systems actually amplify ocean acidification.