To draw down carbon and cool off the planet, ocean fertilization gets another look
by Warren Cornwall at science.org
Panel report fuels interest in tests of artificially triggered plankton blooms – Iron fertilization is among the cheapest options.
by Warren Cornwall at science.org
Panel report fuels interest in tests of artificially triggered plankton blooms – Iron fertilization is among the cheapest options.
Yuan, Peng; Liu, Dong (2021): Proposing a potential strategy concerning Mineral-enhanced Biological Pump (MeBP) for improving Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF). In Applied Clay Science 207, p. 106096. DOI: 10.1016/j.clay.2021.106096.
„To address the low efficiency of the vertical C export of OIF, a potential strategy for enhancing oceanic biological pump using clay minerals, so-called mineral-enhanced biological pump (MeBP), is proposed herein.“
Ming, Tingzhen; Richter, Renaud de; Dietrich Oeste, Franz; Tulip, Robert; Caillol, Sylvain (2021): A nature-based negative emissions technology able to remove atmospheric methane and other greenhouse gases. In Atmospheric Pollution Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.apr.2021.02.017.
„As some anthropogenic emissions cannot be zero, to compensate them it will be necessary to remove GHGs from the atmosphere. Among possible methods, the Iron Salt Aerosol (ISA) offers new possibilities, including removal of methane and several other GHGs, as well as carbon dioxide.“
„A team of scientists together with climate and policy experts from leading international organizations in 11 countries*, grouped under the new Horizon 2020 project NEGEM, will quantify and assess the feasibility and the realistic potential of carbon dioxide removal, as a supplementary strategy to emission mitigation.“
„From 1 July, scientists from 14 institutions in six countries will be examining the opportunities and risks of ocean-based technologies for negative emissions.“
Yamamoto, Akitomo; Abe-Ouchi, Ayako; Ohgaito, Rumi; Ito, Akinori; Oka, Akira (2019): Glacial CO2 decrease and deep-water deoxygenation by iron fertilization from glaciogenic dust. In Clim. Past Discuss. (under review). DOI: 10.5194/cp-2019-31.
„In this study, we report the significance of iron fertilization from glaciogenic dust for glacial CO2 decrease and deep-water deoxygenation using our numerical simulation, which successfully reproduces the magnitude and large-scale pattern of the observed oxygen changes from the present to Last Glacial Maximum.“
„The benefits of adding more iron to the oceans — known as iron fertilisation — would be limited, at least on a global scale, according to a[nbsp]new study[nbsp]published in the 18 February 2020 issue of the[nbsp]Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences[nbsp](1). In other words, there is ‘just enough’ iron in the ocean.“
Lauderdale, Jonathan Maitland; Braakman, Rogier; Forget, Gaël; Dutkiewicz, Stephanie; Follows, Michael J. (2020): Microbial feedbacks optimize ocean iron availability. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1917277117.
„Dissolved iron is quickly lost from the ocean, but its availability to marine microbes may be enhanced by binding with organic molecules which, in turn, are produced by microbes. We hypothesize this forms a reinforcing cycle between biological activity and iron cycling that locally matches the availability of iron and other nutrients, leading to global-scale resource colimitation between macronutrients and micronutrients, and maximizing biological productivity.“
„Study finds Earth’s oceans contain just the right amount of iron; adding more may not improve their ability to absorb carbon dioxide.“
Emerson, D. (2019): Biogenic Iron Dust: A Novel Approach to Ocean Iron Fertilization as a Means of Large Scale Removal of Carbon Dioxide From the Atmosphere. In: Front. Mar. Sci. 6, S. 3944. DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2019.00022.
„This is a proposal for ocean iron fertilization as a means to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The idea is to take advantage of nanoparticulate, poorly crystalline Fe-oxides produced by chemosynthetic iron-oxidizing bacteria as an iron source to the ocean. Upon drying these oxides produce a fine powder that could be dispersed at altitude by aircraft to augment wind-driven Aeolian dust that is a primary iron source to the open ocean.“