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Earth's oceans may be an inconceivably vast ecosystem home to countless species yet unknown to science, but a new study reaffirms that they too are susceptible to the damaging impact of carbon emissions released by humans. According to researchers from the University of Hawaii, ocean acidity levels in some regions have spiked more quickly in the last 200 years than in the preceding 21 thousand years -- threatening the future existence of some of the planet's most important marine life.

While airborne CO2 emissions are already considered a key factor to climate change on the planet's surface, researchers say that nearly a third of all emissions released by humans actually wind up absorbed into the oceans -- and that the resulting acidification could have devastating effects on aquatic organisms.

To measure rises in acidification, researchers examined the levels of a calcium carbonate called aragonite, an element essential for the construction of corral reefs and the shells of mollusks. As acidity levels rise, the levels of aragonite drop, warn University of Hawaii scientists -- and its rate of decline seems to parallel human's creation of CO2 emissions: