Ocean Fertilization – Sydney Dust Storm Proves Geoengineering the Oceans Could Work

This is amazing! So the dust storm was very much like God saying “Hey guys, try this.”

Scientists commissioned to track the effects of the Sydney dust storm have found something intriguing – a massive growth spurt in nearby ocean algae growth, which could help counteract global warming. Could the storm be proof-of-concept for geoengineering the oceans?

The dust storm accomplished something that geoengineers call “ocean fertilization.” When the storm hit Sydney, it dumped an estimated three million tonnes of Australian desert dust into Sydney Harbour and the Tasman Straight. That dust brought nitrogen and phosphate to the waters, providing food to microscopic phytoplankton, whose population numbers rapidly tripled (which is what you see in the image above). And that in turn may rapidly expand the population of local fish, too. Boosting the lower levels of the food chain can easily lead to population growth at the higher rungs.

In other words, Ocean Fertilization can trap atmospheric carbon and isolate it from the atmosphere for a few thousand years. That’s a good thing. But the effect it has on the ocean is still being disputed. The argument being that natural intake will produce different effects than deliberately dumping tonnes of the material [dead algae full of carbon] into the ocean.

Australian geoengineers Ian Jones and Associate Professor Rob Wheen, both of Sydney University, want to inject 2.5 tonnes of nitrogen-rich urea into a controlled area of the sea and try to replicate the effect. They claim that nourishing a 20km wide patch of water could significantly boost catch numbers for small-scale artisanal fishing industries.

The process still very controversial, and the act of massively changing the makeup of the biosphere is practically begging for algae to take over the ocean as we know it and start belching sulfurous fumes into the air.

Dust Storm Triggers Ocean Bloom [ABCScience]