Global Collapse of Marine Calcification & Biomineralization Utility

The Global Collapse of Marine Calcification and Biomineralization Utility (GCMCU) describes a predictable, systemic failure within global oceanic ecosystems resulting from chronic atmospheric hypercapnia. As the oceans continue to absorb anthropogenic carbon dioxide, the corresponding decline in pH drives aragonite and calcite saturation states below critical thresholds across vast oceanic regions. This chemical constraint makes the metabolic production and maintenance of calcium carbonate structures—the foundational material for shells, skeletons, and reefs—physically prohibitive for most calcifying biota. The collapse is not merely an ecological decline; it represents a systemic failure in primary biomineralization utility that fundamentally restructures global trophic dynamics and resource availability on a planetary scale.