Fertilising the Oceans - Thin Soup and a Thin Story
Fertilising the Oceans - Thin Soup and a Thin Story
2 May 2007 @ Real Climate
A firm called planktos.com is getting a lot of attention for their bid to create a carbon offset product based on fertilizing the ocean.
In certain parts of the ocean, surface waters already contain most of the ingredients for a plankton bloom; all they lack is trace amounts of iron. For each 1 atom of iron added in such a place, phytoplankton take up 50,000 atoms of carbon. What could be better?
Phytoplankton biomass does not last forever, any more than tree biomass does. The trick therefore is to get the carbon to sink out of the surface ocean into the depths, generally in the forms of snot and poop. Once it reaches a depth of a kilometer or so, it can decompose to CO2 again but the water will be isolated from the atmosphere for decades, maybe centuries.
Sounds like a great idea? May be yes, may be not...read the detailed post here @ Real Climate to know more
2 May 2007 @ Real Climate
A firm called planktos.com is getting a lot of attention for their bid to create a carbon offset product based on fertilizing the ocean.
In certain parts of the ocean, surface waters already contain most of the ingredients for a plankton bloom; all they lack is trace amounts of iron. For each 1 atom of iron added in such a place, phytoplankton take up 50,000 atoms of carbon. What could be better?
Phytoplankton biomass does not last forever, any more than tree biomass does. The trick therefore is to get the carbon to sink out of the surface ocean into the depths, generally in the forms of snot and poop. Once it reaches a depth of a kilometer or so, it can decompose to CO2 again but the water will be isolated from the atmosphere for decades, maybe centuries.
Sounds like a great idea? May be yes, may be not...read the detailed post here @ Real Climate to know more
Labels: climate-change, ocean, research
PermaLink - Fertilising the Oceans - Thin Soup and a Thin Story
