Antoni et al. (2025): The Effect of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement on Pelagic Bacterial Communities: Focus points derived from a Mesocosm Experiment
Dominik Antoni, Antje Wichels, Gunnar Gerdts, Maarten Boersma, IN: Frontiers in Microbiomes, doi: 10.3389/frmbi.2025.1606890
Along with the task of emission reduction, societies face the task of removing excess CO₂ from the atmosphere by using negative emission technologies (NETs). Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) is a proposed NET, aiming at increasing oceanic CO₂ uptake through the addition of alkaline substances. This is an anthropogenically accelerated version of rock weathering, a natural global process for atmospheric CO₂ regulation. The environmental impacts of OAE remain poorly understood. This study was part of a comprehensive OAE-mesocosm experiment in the North Sea (RETAKE), and focused on the effects of OAE on the pelagic bacterial community during the experiment.