Ocean Fertilization, a Viable Option?
It was a year ago that Victor Smetacek, a scientist at Alfred Wegener Institute, led an expedition to explore one of several geoengineering opportunities believed helpful in the effort to combat climate change. His question centered on the effectiveness of increased iron levels in the world’s oceans on the process of carbon capture.
Phytoplankton, a type of plankton that photosynthesizes, already helps to absorb carbon and reduce atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas. The organisms, however, are too few in number to have an effect on atmospheric levels and require iron, a resource difficult to locate in the ocean, to grow. In some scientist circles, it is believed that by adding iron to the world’s oceans, we can increase the levels of this plankton and their absorption capacity, thereby slowing global warming.
The assumption held: the plankton will die and fall to the bottom of the ocean.
But their research led to the discovery of a fatal flaw. The phytoplankton do not die, and do not fall to the bottom of the ocean. Instead, though the number existing in the test area certainly increased several-fold, other sea creatures eat the organism. The carbon worked its way up the food chain and back into the atmosphere.
The scientists concluded that fertilizing the southwest Atlantic was not a good way to lock away carbon dioxide, but that ocean fertilization needs additional testing before it’s discounted.
Another scientist involved with similar experimenting suggested silicon as an alternative. According to Ken Buesseler,
No one is saying that [ocean fertilization] alone will solve the greenhouse gas problem… But if we try many different solutions at the same time it could have a significant impact.
Yesterday, ScienceNews reported that another study found that fertilizing the ocean with iron increases toxic algae populations. Biological oceanographer Charles Trick, University of Western Ontario in London, is one among many that have questioned the sustainability of such a measure. He also questions – and has explored – possible negative effects.
Trick found that though such nourishment takes place far away from fisheries, it does help neurotoxin-producing algae to proliferate. The effects of exposure to neurotoxins are uncertain, as is the level of production. Studies in the recent years have produced a mixed bag of results. On the study’s results, Trick tells ScienceNews,
[it is] less a prediction of ecological doom than it is a lesson about not knowing the consequences of our actions.
The Washington Independent alludes to such concerns in its article today on geoengineering, claiming the process to be slow and full of potential ramifications. Jeff Goodell, author of “How to Cool the Planet,”
Hope[s] that we never… dump iron into the ocean.
All things considered, while geoengineering alternatives, such as ocean fertilization, deserve further exploration, it appears to be risky business likely incapable of having a large enough impact on our changing climate. In the end, nothing will be as effective – both in our drive for a healthy climate and our drive for a healthy economy – as lowering our emission levels and developing sources of renewable energy.
