Ocean Fertilization

ocean fertilization, untested geoengineering technique designed to increase the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the air by phytoplankton, microscopic plants that reside at or near the surface of the ocean. The premise is that the phytoplankton, after blooming, would die and sink to the ocean floor, taking with them the CO₂ that they had photosynthesized into new tissues. Although some of the sinking material would be returned to the surface through the process of upwelling, it is thought that a small but significant proportion of the carbon would remain on the ocean floor, eventually becoming stored as sedimentary rock.

Ocean fertilization, which some scientists refer to as bio-geoengineering, would involve dissolving iron or nitrates into the surface waters of specific ocean regions to promote the growth of phytoplankton where primary productivity is low. For the scheme to be effective, it is thought that a sustained effort would be required from a fleet of vessels covering most of the ocean. Many authorities maintain that this scheme would take decades to unfold.

Some scientists contend that even large-scale ocean fertilization would not affect the balance of CO₂ in the atmosphere. So far, a number of small-scale climate experiments have been performed, and they reveal that CO₂ uptake by phytoplankton is much lower than predicted. Other studies point out that much of the carbon does not necessarily sink to the ocean floor; it remains at or near the surface in the bodies of zooplankton, small organisms that graze on phytoplankton. Local increases in marine phytoplankton have been shown to attract greater attention from amphipods and other zooplankton, which consume phytoplankton and incorporate it into their tissues.

Other scientists maintain that accelerating the growth of blooms could disrupt marine food chains and cause other ecological problems. For instance, some species of phytoplankton might be better than others at incorporating the nutrients provided by ocean fertilization. Such species might reproduce faster and outcompete other phytoplankton species, and the zooplankton that feed on them might also acquire an advantage. In another scenario, some destructive phytoplankton species, such as the dinoflagellates that cause red tide, might thrive on the nutrients from ocean fertilization and harm the ecosystems that they inhabit. In addition, since the decomposition of organic matter is fueled by oxygen, vast clusters of sinking phytoplankton might deplete the dissolved oxygen of deep ocean ecosystems.