Moss Landing researchers reveal iron as key to clim...( tion and Dr. Jim Bishop of Lawrence Ber...)

tion and Dr. Jim Bishop of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (reported separately in the same issue of Science) indicate that much of the carbon sank to hundreds of meters below the surface. When extrapolated over large portions of the Southern Ocean, this finding suggests that iron fertilization could cause billions of tons of carbon to be removed from the atmosphere each year. Removal of this much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could have helped cool the Earth during ice ages. Similarly, it has been suggested that humans might be able to slow global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through a massive ocean fertilization program.

Unlike previous iron fertilization experiments, SOFeX focused on the two different parts of the Southern Ocean to determine if the iron-induced blooms would be influenced by variations in silicic acid concentrations. Silicic acid is essential to the growth of diatoms, a common type of phytoplankton. The southern part of the Southern Ocean typically has an abundance of silicic acid but the northern part often has very low levels. The results of this experiment indicate that even where silicic acid levels are low, iron fertilization can result in blooms of phytoplankton such as dinoflagellates and prymneseophytes, which do not require silicon for growth yet still consume vast amounts of carbon dioxide. This finding has doubled the area of the Southern Ocean that scientists believe could be important for carbon cycling.

The SOFeX experiment was carried out during January and February of 2002, after a decade of planning and preparation, and was funded by the US National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy. It involved two US research vessels from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and one US Coast Guard research ice-breaker, as well as about 100 scientists from at least eighteen different research institutio
'"/>

Contact: Kenneth Coale
coale@mlml.calstate.edu
831-771-4406
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
15-Apr-2004

Page: 1 2 3
Related biology news :

1. Belgian researchers explore revolutionary approach to angiogenesis
2. Award winning researchers reveal potential new role for Glivec
3. $7.5 Million grant to Yale researchers for role of viruses in cancer
4. New anti-inflammatory strategy for cancer therapy identified by UCSD researchers
5. Joslin researchers clarify mechanisms for beta-cell formation
6. Virginia Tech researchers to release findings on Smith River Project
7. Molecular motor myosin VI moves hand over hand, researchers say
8. ASU researchers demonstrate new technique that improves the power of atomic force micrscopy
9. Emory researchers map structure of anti-cancer molecule
10. Leukemia stem cells identified by Stanford researchers
11. EURYI Award given for the first time to 25 young European researchers