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Time to release the moratorium on ocean fertilization?

• henearkr 6y ago
  If the clathrates are really massively destabilized with raising temperatures, no existing microorganisms could possibly stop the huge mega-bubbles of methane that would raise bursting to the ocean surface. Microorganisms could very well be useful, but only if the process stays slow. But in this case, maybe there are already enough of them naturally.
  • haram_masala 6y ago
    As a biologist, I would advise against underestimating what microorganisms are capable of.
    • azernik 6y ago
      And indeed, in this case it's already being broken down by microorganisms before it reaches the atmosphere. Still being broken down into CO2, but still not as bad as being released directly into the atmosphere as CH4.
      • henearkr 6y ago
        Yes. I must apologize, my poor English grammar made my comment unclear: I was wondering, in case of releases of methane orders of magnitude larger and quicker than they are now, how microorganisms could possibly stop large bubbles on their way. It is clearly not the case right now.
        • hcknwscommenter 6y ago
          Not the original commenter, but I think the point of the comment is different from your interpretation. Typically "ocean fertilization" refers to the concept of seeding the ocean with iron and other nutrients to encourage blooming of oxygen generating (CO2 consuming) photosynthetic microorganisms. The idea is not to literally consume the rising bubble as it boils off the ocean floor, but to slow down/reverse global warming in general by reducing atmospheric CO2.
          • henearkr 6y ago
            Ah! In this case it perfectly makes sense indeed ^^ Yes ocean fertilization is a very underrated geoengineering tool for carbon capture and storage, that should be really looked into.
            • cynusx 6y ago
              Exactly, there are some issues though with getting iron spread out over such a ridiculously large area of the world. I think an efficient delivery mechanism could be to demand that plastics slowly release iron when submerged for a longer time. With any luck that'd clean up the plastic belt also. Another mechanism would be to have ships and planes emit iron when they travel over these areas
              • henearkr 6y ago
                Hmm... plastic or airplane pollution is just enough to create pollution problems, but I think they it's way too small to be a suitable vector for this kind of large scale delivery. Micro-plastics are plentiful in the oceans in particular because they degrade very slowly, whereas we want algal bloom to quickly devour the iron, so that would not match. I appreciate the funny idea though! ^^ To turn these calamities into features!
                • cynusx 6y ago
                  I am not so sure about that, I think highly concentrated iron is less productive for carbon sequestration than less concentrated iron. In addition because the flow of plastic is constant it may lead to semi-permanent algae rather than a boom and bust of an algae bloom. The slow degradation of plastics is actually a feature in that sense, as a single piece of plastic will fertilize a larger area of the ocean. It may also lead to algae growing on the plastic and then dying, leading it to sink and no longer represent a threat to wildlife.
              • restalis 6y ago
                An efficient delivery mechanism would be throwing biodegradable mineral-coated micro-rafts into warm surface marine currents. This way a few distribution points on the planet may suffice.
        • MertsA 6y ago
          I think the suggestion was to fertilize the oceans with large quantities of iron to create massive microorganism blooms to sequester CO2, not to somehow "block the clathrate gun" as it were.