Abstract
The viability of coral reefs has been linked to the extent to which the overlying sea water is supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate, which in turn depends on the concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide. Projections of a future increase in carbon dioxide emissions indicate that the health of coral reefs may be seriously endangered, and trends in this direction already have been observed. The equilibria involved in this chemical system demonstrate several important concepts in elementary physical chemistry: Henry's law of gas solubility, solubility products of solids, and acid-base equilibria and dissociation constants. The calcium carbonate-water-carbon dioxide system is discussed in terms of these elementary concepts. Then a computer program available on the Internet is used, together with realistic parameters for tropical seawater, to calculate the extent of calcium carbonate supersaturation with the current atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and that predicted for the beginning of the next century.
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