CO2 Trapping Theory Dealt Major Blow
30.01.2009 - Logistics, Atmosphere & Space, Water & Oceans, Flora & Fauna, Other, Antarctic
The theory of adding iron to the oceans to help sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide cheaply and efficiently has suffered a major blow, according to research published in this week's edition of Nature, show that the amount of carbon that can be sequestered in the deep waters of the Southern Ocean has been widely overestimated.
The 2004-05 CROZEX study observed impact of natural iron fertilization on algal growth and carbon export near the Crozet Islands (an archipelago some 2,000 kilometres southeast of South Africa) and concluded that sequestration rates at 200 metres' depth were almost 80 times less than the amount that scientists had determined during a similar study in the nearby Kerguelen region.
Moreover, these findings back up the hypothesis some scientist had that removing 30% of annual human CO2 production would necessitate the fertilization of an area ten times the size of the Southern Ocean, the most fertile waters for iron seeding, implying that even if all the planet's oceans were covered, it would not make a huge dent in atmospheric CO2 levels.
