Iron seeding replenishes ocean plankton
Plankton is a major food source for many ocean plants and creatures. Without plankton, our oceans would die. Plankton also captures much of the CO2 that gets soaked up by the oceans. Now a European expedition has shown a way to reverse some of the damage.
According to Planktos Science, Eighty percent of atmospheric CO2 is captured by the oceans. Already large populations of ocean plants have been decimated to the tune of, 10 percent are gone from the Southern Ocean, 17 percent from the N. Atlantic, 26 percent from the north Pacific, and 50 percent from the tropical seas. The dying plankton and plant life in the oceans is reducing the amount of CO2 that can be sequestered as well as creating devastation among ocean fish and mammals. The continuing loss of life in the oceans will severally decrease the amount that the oceans can absorb.
Ironically, part of the ocean problem is because of better use of the land. With better cultivation and management of land resources has created more lush green plants that live longer and cover more ground. This improvement in the land has meant that dust that would normally get blown out to sea from various areas around the world is staying put on land. This has caused a decrease in many minerals, especially iron, that is necessary for plankton to grow. The loss of plankton has created the major loss referenced above.
In the 1980s, Dr. John Martin diagnosed the problem in the oceans as iron deficiency. He suggested that seeding of the oceans with iron would reinvigorate the plankton which in turn would replenish plants and other living ocean creatures.
January 27, 2009, the RV PolarStern set sail for the Southern Ocean with 10 tons of iron. The crew of this European Union research ship was composed of 50 scientists from India and around the world. The 10 tons were scattered across several hundred square kilometers of ocean. Within days the ocean began to generate a large growth of plankton. You can see the satellite picture of the area. It’s the part with the arrow.
With the rebirth of the plankton in the seeded part of the Southern Ocean, it looks as if one of the best environmental moves that countries can make is to send a little iron to sea.
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