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Carbon credits for dumping iron into the ocean? The artificial plankton bloom may absorb some CO2 but how permanent is that? It would be nice to see some resear

by praptak 14y ago

Carbon credits for dumping iron into the ocean? The artificial plankton bloom may absorb some CO2 but how permanent is that? It would be nice to see some research on that.

Tloewald 14y ago
Well I guess this <del>asshole</del> entrepreneur is doing the research.
yxhuvud 14y ago
My guess would be 'very'. Dead plankton will fall to the floor of the ocean and will be removed from circulation that way. After all, that is how the oceans were cleared from iron sulphate in the first place.
- kaybe 14y ago
  Only a tiny part of the dead plankton will make it to the bottom, most falls apart in the top layers and the CO2 will stay in circulation. The effect is tiny, thus it takes a long time to naturally have an influence.
njharman 14y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankton#Biogeochemical_significance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankton#Biogeochemical_signifi... Primarily by grazing on phytoplankton, zooplankton provide carbon to the planktic foodweb, either respiring it to provide metabolic energy, or upon death as biomass or detritus. Typically more dense than seawater, organic material tends to sink. In open ocean ecosystems away from the coasts this transports carbon from surface waters to the deep. This process is known as the biological pump, and is one reason that oceans constitute the largest carbon sink on Earth.
ChuckMcM 14y ago
The basic theory is the plankton grow, turn CO2 in to plankton, which get eaten. The result is less CO2 in the air. How much less is an interesting question. What I find amazing is how controversial this is. If you can actually pull a significant fraction of CO2 out of the atmosphere and return it to the sea, why wouldn't you do that? It would seem to be potentially a huge weapon to wield against global warming and relative to other ideas is both actionable and hugely less expensive. And yet even modest experiments are fought tooth and nail. Its a strange dissonance that conspiracy theorists love but I write up to a more generalized fear of change. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.
- ryanmolden 14y ago
  I think people are afraid of messing things up worse through unforeseen consequences. If my web app tries something new and crashes, no big deal. If you try something new in the planet's atmosphere and it crashes, well...big deal :) I am not in that group, but I can sympathize to some degree. Humans have a history of overrating our own competence.
- zipdog 14y ago
  The oceans are already absorbed enormous amounts of atmospheric CO2, and it's messing up marine ecosystems by changing pH levels, among other things. It's a major cause of coral loss and possibly of jellyfish population growth. The reason IMO, for fighting things tooth and nail is that the systems we are dealing with are complex and interconnected, sort of like the world economy - which has billions of dollars of modeling yet still can't predict effects of simple changes. Major changes in any ocean system will have unpredictable effects in others.
  - justincormack 14y ago
    And coral is a great CO2 absorber...
    - uxp 14y ago
      Coral is a great CO3 absorber. CO2 can acidify the ocean water, which lowers calcification rates affecting the ability to grow carbonate skeletons. Combined with an increase of CO2 in the atmosphere contributing to a global increase in temperature, which coral is extremely sensitive to, and an increase of CO2 anywhere is bad news. Source: http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta/BIO%20585%20CoralReef%20Field%20Course_files/Readings/Gattuso%20etal%20AmerZool%20photosynth%20calcification%20review.pdf http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta/BIO%20585%20CoralReef%20Field...
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by praptak 14y ago

Carbon credits for dumping iron into the ocean? The artificial plankton bloom may absorb some CO2 but how permanent is that? It would be nice to see some research on that.

Tloewald 14y ago

Well I guess this <del>asshole</del> entrepreneur is doing the research.

yxhuvud 14y ago

My guess would be 'very'. Dead plankton will fall to the floor of the ocean and will be removed from circulation that way. After all, that is how the oceans were cleared from iron sulphate in the first place.

kaybe 14y ago
Only a tiny part of the dead plankton will make it to the bottom, most falls apart in the top layers and the CO2 will stay in circulation. The effect is tiny, thus it takes a long time to naturally have an influence.

njharman 14y ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankton#Biogeochemical_significance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankton#Biogeochemical_signifi... Primarily by grazing on phytoplankton, zooplankton provide carbon to the planktic foodweb, either respiring it to provide metabolic energy, or upon death as biomass or detritus. Typically more dense than seawater, organic material tends to sink. In open ocean ecosystems away from the coasts this transports carbon from surface waters to the deep. This process is known as the biological pump, and is one reason that oceans constitute the largest carbon sink on Earth.

ChuckMcM 14y ago

The basic theory is the plankton grow, turn CO2 in to plankton, which get eaten. The result is less CO2 in the air. How much less is an interesting question. What I find amazing is how controversial this is. If you can actually pull a significant fraction of CO2 out of the atmosphere and return it to the sea, why wouldn't you do that? It would seem to be potentially a huge weapon to wield against global warming and relative to other ideas is both actionable and hugely less expensive. And yet even modest experiments are fought tooth and nail. Its a strange dissonance that conspiracy theorists love but I write up to a more generalized fear of change. It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.

ryanmolden 14y ago
I think people are afraid of messing things up worse through unforeseen consequences. If my web app tries something new and crashes, no big deal. If you try something new in the planet's atmosphere and it crashes, well...big deal :) I am not in that group, but I can sympathize to some degree. Humans have a history of overrating our own competence.
zipdog 14y ago
The oceans are already absorbed enormous amounts of atmospheric CO2, and it's messing up marine ecosystems by changing pH levels, among other things. It's a major cause of coral loss and possibly of jellyfish population growth. The reason IMO, for fighting things tooth and nail is that the systems we are dealing with are complex and interconnected, sort of like the world economy - which has billions of dollars of modeling yet still can't predict effects of simple changes. Major changes in any ocean system will have unpredictable effects in others.
- justincormack 14y ago
  And coral is a great CO2 absorber...
  - uxp 14y ago
    Coral is a great CO3 absorber. CO2 can acidify the ocean water, which lowers calcification rates affecting the ability to grow carbonate skeletons. Combined with an increase of CO2 in the atmosphere contributing to a global increase in temperature, which coral is extremely sensitive to, and an increase of CO2 anywhere is bad news. Source: http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta/BIO%20585%20CoralReef%20Field%20Course_files/Readings/Gattuso%20etal%20AmerZool%20photosynth%20calcification%20review.pdf http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta/BIO%20585%20CoralReef%20Field...
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