Scientists propose fertilizing the ocean with iron to reduce carbon dioxide

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cientificos proponen fertilizar el oceano con hierro para reducir el dioxido de carbono.jpg
cientificos proponen fertilizar el oceano con hierro para reducir el dioxido de carbono.jpg

Carbon dioxide is one of the main causes of global warming. And it is that, the excessive emissions of this colorless, odorless gas, composed of oxygen and carbon, have been a problem for years caused by human activity, whose magnitude has increased notably in recent times.

This has led scientists from around the world to focus their efforts on developing a solution that helps mitigate the levels of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere.

In this sense, a plan was recently announced that contemplates flood the oceans world with phytoplankton as a measure to reduce the impact of the effects generated by climate change.

The initiative is seen as a form of geoengineering, in which the ocean has the ability to dissolve carbon dioxide naturally after absorbing large amounts of this element; all this without the intervention of harmful chemical products in the process.

In the same way that land plants make use of carbon dioxide and sunlight to produce oxygen as a result of photosynthesis, so do phytoplankton, which by the way is responsible for 50% of the oxygen present in the atmosphere.

Based on this fact, some researchers have suggested increasing the amount of phytoplankton in the ocean, in order to enhance the effort made by this organism and extract a greater volume of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Taking into account that phytoplankton is found in greater quantity in iron-rich areas, it could pour small amounts of this material in strategic parts of the ocean to promote the production of this organism.

Regarding the effects that could be caused by the discharge of iron in the world’s oceans, Ken Buesseler, a marine radiochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, together with a team of scientists, carried out a study on the matter and discovered that the introduction of this element in the ocean might alter the flow of carbon into the depths.

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In this way, iron could be an element of great help in reducing the amount of carbon dioxide, with an estimate of up to one gigaton a year.

However, after this study 20 years ago, Few efforts have been made by the scientific community to delve into the potential of ocean fertilization with iron. In this regard, Buesseler expressed the following:

What happened 20 years ago is we started going back and forth, and we spread a chemical form of iron and we looked for phytoplankton, and sure enough, it showed very clearly that if you increase iron, you can create more uptake of carbon dioxide […] The difference between now and 20 years ago is that I think the climate crisis is much more apparent to the public.

Another important step to improve the world in which we live.