eli5 What consists in a pH level and how does it contribute to the entire ecosystem?

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Merriam-Webster’s online definition is –

a measure of acidity and alkalinity of a solution that is a number on a scale on which a value of 7 represents neutrality and lower numbers indicate increasing acidity and higher numbers increasing alkalinity and on which each unit of change represents a tenfold change in acidity or alkalinity

(So far I understand)

and that is the negative logarithm of the effective hydrogen-ion concentration or hydrogen-ion activity in gram equivalents per liter of the solution. (Now I’m lost)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pH

Can anyone help me please?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

pH measures how many hydrogen ions you have running around. It’s usually applied to water solutions. Since hydrogen ions are fundamental to a ton of chemical reactions, especially ones that happen in biology, their concentration has a whole lot to do with what reactions happen and how fast.

As a result, pH is fundamental to most life processes…they only work over a pretty narrow pH range and they quit working properly, fast, if you get outside the preferred range.