Multiplying the ocean's CO2 guzzlers

Adding nutrients to areas FIVE WAYS TO SAVE THE WORLD

of the ocean that lack
phytoplankton is one way About the programme
Watch the TV trail
of reversing the effects of
global warming explored
by a new BBC TV
documentary, Five Ways The futuristic fleet of
yachts pumping sea-
To Save The World.
water into the clouds
Our oceans are teeming with Five Ways To Save The World
phytoplankton: millions of Monday 19 February 2007
microscopic plants beneath 2100 GMT on BBC Two
Why launching sulphur
the waves that are vital to
rockets may stop
the marine ecosystem Programme preview global warming
because they form the base of the marine food chain.
Phytoplankton are not visible to the naked eye but from
space, satellite images show that phytoplankton form The deflective global
enormous green swirls hundreds of kilometres long around sunshade designed to
coastal waters. protect our planet
They employ photosynthesis, using sunlight and carbon
dioxide (CO2) from sea water, to sustain themselves.
Could feeding the
"Just like trees, they can take carbon dioxide and give us
ocean's phytoplankton
back oxygen," says Professor Ian Jones, an ocean engineer help save the planet?
from the University of Sydney, Australia.
When the plankton die, they sink deep to the ocean floor,
taking the carbon with them. The machines that
What Professor Jones wants to do is add one of the mimic our natural
components of urine - urea - to the areas of the ocean that carbon capturers
lack phytoplankton.
Urea is a nitrogen-rich fertiliser that helps plants grow and
therefore by adding it to the parts of the ocean that lack
phytoplankton, Professor Jones thinks it will turn these areas SEE ALSO
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It was a natural disaster -
flooding - that was to trigger
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And by studying the effects outcome, you can turn off the
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he discovered that when it
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rained, more nutrients come Professor Ian Jones report
into the harbour and the phytoplankton numbers increase. Skydiver murderer to be
When the rain goes, they decrease again. sentenced
In 1995, a team of US oceanographers set out to study the Stone Age door revealed in
"Desolate Zone" - an area 400km (250 miles) to the south Zurich
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The researchers wanted to test the theory that this area was Penthouse founder
missing one vital nutrient: iron. Guccione dies
Half a tonne of iron was added to the sea. As a result, US military 'can ban gay
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that the small area of newly fertilised phytoplankton had
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absorbed an additional 7,000 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent
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of 2,000 fully grown trees.
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But for Professor Jones, there Most popular now, in detail
was a problem with iron
fertilisation. Eighty percent of
the ocean does not react to it
because there is already
enough, especially around the
coast.
The challenge for him was to
find a source of nutrients that
would be easily and cheaply Urea would be pumped into the ocean
from a nitrogen factory
available.
Like iron, nitrogen is one of the nutrients that makes
plankton grow, but it has to be in a form that the marine
organisms can process.
Professor Jones' solution is to use granular urea - bitter-
tasting white granules - and convert it into liquid form so
that it can go through a pipeline into the ocean.
The plan would be to run the pipe from a nitrogen factory
and pump gallons of urea into the ocean to feed the
plankton.
Unknown consequences
Adding large doses of nutrients to the ocean, however, does
not always have a beneficial effect.
If there are too many plankton, when they die they drive
bacteria production that results in a depletion of oxygen in
the water and the death of other marine life.
The urea plan would only work in areas where there is not
much plankton to begin with, says the professor.
"The important thing about ocean nourishment is that we are
not doing it where there is lots of productivity; we are doing
it in the desert regions of the ocean," he explains.
"If you do not like the outcome, you can turn off the tap. It's
like irrigation. When you turn off the food supply for the
plankton, they will just die."
But then there is the issue of meddling with ecosystems that
have found a natural balance over millions of years of
evolution.
Even Professor Jones admits: "Once you start managing
nature you have to continue to manage nature, there is no
use hoping that it will restore itself to a new equilibrium set
up by humans."

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