Iron Hypothesis
Encyclopedia
The Iron Hypothesis was formulated by oceanographer John Martin
, based on theories by Joseph Hart and first tested in 1993. In 1988, Nature
published the results of Martin's experiments as well as his speculations on climate change. It was hoped that fertilizing the oceans with iron
would draw down atmospheric CO2.
Certain areas of the oceans have high levels of plant nutrients, such as nitrate
s, phosphate
s and carbonic acid
. However, the phytoplankton
does not grow as strongly as it should, given the plentiful supply of sunlight
and plant food. It was discovered by John Martin that the lack of micronutrient
s, trace metal
s and particularly iron
, was a limiting factor
for growth of phytoplankton in HNLC
(High Nitrate, Low Chlorophyll) ocean
surface waters, much in the same way as a lack of vitamin
s (vital minerals) can cause illness and deficiencies in humans. Scientists Ken Johnson, Dick Barber and Kenneth Coale of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
in Monterey Bay
, California
, were able to prove John Martin was correct, in a series of tests conducted near the Galápagos Islands
in 1993 and again in 1995. Their results were published in Nature
. By seeding or fertilizing the surface layer of the sea with fine particulates
of iron, growth blooms of phytoplankton
could be encouraged.
s are huge natural carbon dioxide sinks and represent the largest active carbon sink on Earth. This oceanic sink for carbon dioxide
(CO2) is driven by two processes, the solubility pump
and the biological pump
. The solubility pump
is where atmospheric CO2, one of the greenhouse effect
gases, is washed out of the air by precipitation
. The rainfall dissolves the gas and turns some of it into carbonic acid. In the natural circulation of the solubility pump, CO2 is also released back into the atmosphere - unless it is utilised by the biological pump
. The biological pump is where biological organism
s, mainly phytoplankton, metabolises and fixes the CO2 into carbohydrate
through photosynthesis
, which then enters the ocean food chain, the aquatic ecosystem
. A 2006 study suggests that every day, more than a hundred million tons of carbon in the form of CO2 are fixed into organic material by phytoplankton in the euphotic zone and each day a similar amount of this now biological carbon
is either grazed by other marine
life or sinks to the sea floor as marine snow
.
Anthropogenic
production of CO2 has imbalanced the solubility pump by placing more CO2 in the atmosphere. About one third of this increase (approximately 2.2 Giga tonnes of Carbon per year) is being dissolved in the oceans, leading to increased acidification
and threatening ecosystem
s. The amount of CO2 that can be held in the oceans is dependent on the temperature and salinity of the water. Cold water holds more CO2 than warm water. Whilst deep cold water is able to hold vast quantities of dissolved CO2, this water does circulate around the world through the thermohaline circulation
. As this deep water warms, when it nears the surface, it is less able to contain the dissolved gas and CO2 is released back into the atmosphere. It is said by some prominent oceanographers that the world's oceans have a climatic memory. That changes in CO2 release, are directly related to climatic changes hundreds of years before.
The biological pump also has a circulation cycle. Which can be positively influenced by the careful adjustment of growth limiting factor
s. Using the Iron Hypothesis and fertilization as a tool, it would be possible to encourage the biological pump to increase the extraction (from the solubility cycle) and fixation of additional anthropogenic carbon dioxide, into living structures. Any dead or deteriorated phytoplankton that was not consumed by other sea life (including bacteria), would eventually sink to the ocean floor as marine snow, where it would be sequestered, taking no further part in the active biological cycle. Some of this carbon is remineralised by bacteria and other sea life, however, for all practical purposes the sequestration is regarded as very long term.
Crude oil is believed to be the result of compression and heating of rocks containing prehistoric zooplankton
and phytoplankton
. By encouraging the growth of phytoplankton through the Iron Hypothesis, carbon dioxide
created by the anthropogenic
emissions of fossil fuel
s, could be incorporated back into zooplankton and phytoplankton, which is then trapped on the ocean floor and could eventually, after considerable time as the result of compression of the floor sediment
s, become crude oil all over again. One might speculate that it may be possible to farm the phytoplankton blooms, collect the biomass and store it in depleted oil wells, where methanogenesis
would not be a problem. Indeed, the production of methane under these circumstances would be a fringe benefit.
The Iron Hypothesis is elegant from a global engineering standpoint because a small amount of hematites (micrometre-sized iron particles) could have a huge effect on the atmosphere. Tests in 2002 suggested that between 10,000 and 100,000 carbon
atoms are sunk for each iron
atom added to the water. With these figures in mind, one might believe it possible to sequester 1 billion tonnes of CO2 for as little as 30,000 tonnes of iron. "Give me a half a tanker of iron and I'll give you the next ice age," Martin once said jokingly. However, oceanographers realise that the amount of seeding has to be carefully controlled. Too large a bloom of phytoplankton and you could release methane
and dimethyl sulfide
(DMS), which would not be desirable. German reports in 2005 indicate that any biomass
carbon in the oceans, whether trapped on the ocean floor or recycled in the euphotic zone, represents long term storage of carbon. The application of iron fertilisation in select parts of the oceans, at carefully controlled levels, could have the combined effect of restoring ocean productivity while at the same time correcting the negligent anthropogenic
production of carbon dioxide
.
It has been noted that iron seeding takes place naturally. Not only around estuaries where minerals are washed out by rivers, but also during volcanic eruptions. When Mount Pinatubo
erupted in the Philippines
in 1991, it ejected ten cubic kilometres of material, ten times more than Mount St. Helens
. Volcanic ash
containing trace metal
s, was spread by the winds over the world's oceans. It was reported that there was a noticeable increase in the levels of oxygen
(O2) in the years that followed. The minerals were washed into the oceans, where the iron was absorbed by the phytoplankton and enabled them to fix and metabolise the CO2 and release O2.
Sadly, John Martin died of prostate cancer
in 1993. His discovery of the Iron Hypothesis could provide a means of controlling the anthropogenic emissions in the atmosphere, even though they are a minor percentage of the total CO2. It could also be used to re-invigorate the oceans, producing vast quantities of food for marine life, or even farmed to provide an alternative energy source. The majority of the energy consumed today was originally collected by plant life in the oceans and these oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface. Research is being conducted to see if carbon sequestration is possible. Some of the results suggest that any additional carbon fixed through the Iron Hypothesis is merely cycled in the euphotic zone and consumed by heterotrophs. Even so, it would be possible to filter this biomass from the water, as baleen feeders do.
John Martin (oceanographer)
John Martin , was an oceanographer.Born in Old Lyme, Connecticut, he is best known for his research on the role of iron as a phytoplankton micronutrient, and its significance for so-called "High-Nutrient, Low Chlorophyll" regions of the oceans...
, based on theories by Joseph Hart and first tested in 1993. In 1988, Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
published the results of Martin's experiments as well as his speculations on climate change. It was hoped that fertilizing the oceans with iron
Iron fertilization
Iron fertilization is the intentional introduction of iron to the upper ocean to stimulate a phytoplankton bloom. This is intended to enhance biological productivity, which can benefit the marine food chain and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Iron is a trace element necessary for...
would draw down atmospheric CO2.
Certain areas of the oceans have high levels of plant nutrients, such as nitrate
Nitrate
The nitrate ion is a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. It is the conjugate base of nitric acid, consisting of one central nitrogen atom surrounded by three identically-bonded oxygen atoms in a trigonal planar arrangement. The nitrate ion carries a...
s, phosphate
Phosphate
A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...
s and carbonic acid
Carbonic acid
Carbonic acid is the inorganic compound with the formula H2CO3 . It is also a name sometimes given to solutions of carbon dioxide in water, because such solutions contain small amounts of H2CO3. Carbonic acid forms two kinds of salts, the carbonates and the bicarbonates...
. However, the phytoplankton
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton are the autotrophic component of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν , meaning "plant", and πλαγκτός , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter". Most phytoplankton are too small to be individually seen with the unaided eye...
does not grow as strongly as it should, given the plentiful supply of sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
and plant food. It was discovered by John Martin that the lack of micronutrient
Micronutrient
Micronutrients are nutrients required by humans and other living things throughout life in small quantities to orchestrate a whole range of physiological functions, but which the organism itself cannot produce. For people, they include dietary trace minerals in amounts generally less than 100...
s, trace metal
Trace metal
Trace metals are metals in extremely small quantities that reside in or are present in animal and plant cells and tissue. They are a necessary part of good nutrition, although they can be toxic if ingested in excess quantities....
s and particularly iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
, was a limiting factor
Limiting factor
A limiting factor or limiting resource is a factor that controls a process, such as organism growth or species population, size, or distribution. The availability of food, predation pressure, or availability of shelter are examples of factors that could be limiting for an organism...
for growth of phytoplankton in HNLC
HNLC
HNLC stands for "high-nitrate, low-chlorophyll" - a term used in marine ecology to describe areas of the ocean where the number of phytoplankton are low and fairly constant in spite of high macro-nutrient concentrations...
(High Nitrate, Low Chlorophyll) ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
surface waters, much in the same way as a lack of vitamin
Vitamin
A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...
s (vital minerals) can cause illness and deficiencies in humans. Scientists Ken Johnson, Dick Barber and Kenneth Coale of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
Moss Landing Marine Laboratories
The Moss Landing Marine Laboratories is a multi-campus marine research consortium headquartered at Moss Landing, California.-Organization:...
in Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean, along the central coast of California. The bay is south of San Francisco and San Jose, between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, were able to prove John Martin was correct, in a series of tests conducted near the Galápagos Islands
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...
in 1993 and again in 1995. Their results were published in Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
. By seeding or fertilizing the surface layer of the sea with fine particulates
Particle (ecology)
In marine and freshwater ecology, a particle is a small object. Particles can remain in suspension in the ocean or freshwater, however they eventually settle and accumulate as sediment. Some can enter the atmosphere through wave action where they can act as cloud condensation nuclei...
of iron, growth blooms of phytoplankton
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton are the autotrophic component of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν , meaning "plant", and πλαγκτός , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter". Most phytoplankton are too small to be individually seen with the unaided eye...
could be encouraged.
The hypothesis
The world's oceanOcean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
s are huge natural carbon dioxide sinks and represent the largest active carbon sink on Earth. This oceanic sink for carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
(CO2) is driven by two processes, the solubility pump
Solubility pump
In oceanic biogeochemistry, the solubility pump is a physico-chemical process that transports carbon from the ocean's surface to its interior.-Overview:...
and the biological pump
Biological pump
In oceanic biogeochemistry, the biological pump is the sum of a suite of biologically-mediated processes that transport carbon from the surface euphotic zone to the ocean's interior.-Overview:...
. The solubility pump
Solubility pump
In oceanic biogeochemistry, the solubility pump is a physico-chemical process that transports carbon from the ocean's surface to its interior.-Overview:...
is where atmospheric CO2, one of the greenhouse effect
Greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere...
gases, is washed out of the air by precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
. The rainfall dissolves the gas and turns some of it into carbonic acid. In the natural circulation of the solubility pump, CO2 is also released back into the atmosphere - unless it is utilised by the biological pump
Biological pump
In oceanic biogeochemistry, the biological pump is the sum of a suite of biologically-mediated processes that transport carbon from the surface euphotic zone to the ocean's interior.-Overview:...
. The biological pump is where biological organism
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...
s, mainly phytoplankton, metabolises and fixes the CO2 into carbohydrate
Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...
through photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
, which then enters the ocean food chain, the aquatic ecosystem
Aquatic ecosystem
An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem in a body of water. Communities of organisms that are dependent on each other and on their environment live in aquatic ecosystems. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems....
. A 2006 study suggests that every day, more than a hundred million tons of carbon in the form of CO2 are fixed into organic material by phytoplankton in the euphotic zone and each day a similar amount of this now biological carbon
Carbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
is either grazed by other marine
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
life or sinks to the sea floor as marine snow
Marine snow
In the deep ocean, marine snow is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column. It is a significant means of exporting energy from the light-rich photic zone to the aphotic zone below. The term was first coined by the explorer William Beebe as he...
.
Anthropogenic
Anthropogenic
Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments, biodiversity and other resources. The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity. The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian...
production of CO2 has imbalanced the solubility pump by placing more CO2 in the atmosphere. About one third of this increase (approximately 2.2 Giga tonnes of Carbon per year) is being dissolved in the oceans, leading to increased acidification
Ocean acidification
Ocean acidification is the name given to the ongoing decrease in the pH and increase in acidity of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere....
and threatening ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
s. The amount of CO2 that can be held in the oceans is dependent on the temperature and salinity of the water. Cold water holds more CO2 than warm water. Whilst deep cold water is able to hold vast quantities of dissolved CO2, this water does circulate around the world through the thermohaline circulation
Thermohaline circulation
The term thermohaline circulation refers to a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes....
. As this deep water warms, when it nears the surface, it is less able to contain the dissolved gas and CO2 is released back into the atmosphere. It is said by some prominent oceanographers that the world's oceans have a climatic memory. That changes in CO2 release, are directly related to climatic changes hundreds of years before.
The biological pump also has a circulation cycle. Which can be positively influenced by the careful adjustment of growth limiting factor
Limiting factor
A limiting factor or limiting resource is a factor that controls a process, such as organism growth or species population, size, or distribution. The availability of food, predation pressure, or availability of shelter are examples of factors that could be limiting for an organism...
s. Using the Iron Hypothesis and fertilization as a tool, it would be possible to encourage the biological pump to increase the extraction (from the solubility cycle) and fixation of additional anthropogenic carbon dioxide, into living structures. Any dead or deteriorated phytoplankton that was not consumed by other sea life (including bacteria), would eventually sink to the ocean floor as marine snow, where it would be sequestered, taking no further part in the active biological cycle. Some of this carbon is remineralised by bacteria and other sea life, however, for all practical purposes the sequestration is regarded as very long term.
Crude oil is believed to be the result of compression and heating of rocks containing prehistoric zooplankton
Zooplankton
Zooplankton are heterotrophic plankton. Plankton are organisms drifting in oceans, seas, and bodies of fresh water. The word "zooplankton" is derived from the Greek zoon , meaning "animal", and , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter"...
and phytoplankton
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton are the autotrophic component of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν , meaning "plant", and πλαγκτός , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter". Most phytoplankton are too small to be individually seen with the unaided eye...
. By encouraging the growth of phytoplankton through the Iron Hypothesis, carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
created by the anthropogenic
Anthropogenic
Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments, biodiversity and other resources. The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity. The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian...
emissions of fossil fuel
Fossil fuel
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...
s, could be incorporated back into zooplankton and phytoplankton, which is then trapped on the ocean floor and could eventually, after considerable time as the result of compression of the floor sediment
Sediment
Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....
s, become crude oil all over again. One might speculate that it may be possible to farm the phytoplankton blooms, collect the biomass and store it in depleted oil wells, where methanogenesis
Methanogenesis
Methanogenesis or biomethanation is the formation of methane by microbes known as methanogens. Organisms capable of producing methane have been identified only from the domain Archaea, a group phylogenetically distinct from both eukaryotes and bacteria, although many live in close association with...
would not be a problem. Indeed, the production of methane under these circumstances would be a fringe benefit.
The Iron Hypothesis is elegant from a global engineering standpoint because a small amount of hematites (micrometre-sized iron particles) could have a huge effect on the atmosphere. Tests in 2002 suggested that between 10,000 and 100,000 carbon
Carbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
atoms are sunk for each iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
atom added to the water. With these figures in mind, one might believe it possible to sequester 1 billion tonnes of CO2 for as little as 30,000 tonnes of iron. "Give me a half a tanker of iron and I'll give you the next ice age," Martin once said jokingly. However, oceanographers realise that the amount of seeding has to be carefully controlled. Too large a bloom of phytoplankton and you could release methane
Methane
Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, the principal component of natural gas, and probably the most abundant organic compound on earth. The relative abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel...
and dimethyl sulfide
Dimethyl sulfide
Dimethyl sulfide or methylthiomethane is an organosulfur compound with the formula 2S. Dimethyl sulfide is a water-insoluble flammable liquid that boils at and has a characteristic disagreeable odor. It is a component of the smell produced from cooking of certain vegetables, notably maize,...
(DMS), which would not be desirable. German reports in 2005 indicate that any biomass
Biomass
Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel....
carbon in the oceans, whether trapped on the ocean floor or recycled in the euphotic zone, represents long term storage of carbon. The application of iron fertilisation in select parts of the oceans, at carefully controlled levels, could have the combined effect of restoring ocean productivity while at the same time correcting the negligent anthropogenic
Anthropogenic
Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments, biodiversity and other resources. The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity. The term was first used in the technical sense by Russian...
production of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
.
It has been noted that iron seeding takes place naturally. Not only around estuaries where minerals are washed out by rivers, but also during volcanic eruptions. When Mount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo
Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano located on the island of Luzon, near the tripoint of the Philippine provinces of Zambales, Tarlac, and Pampanga. It is located in the Tri-Cabusilan Mountain range separating the west coast of Luzon from the central plains, and is west of the dormant and...
erupted in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in 1991, it ejected ten cubic kilometres of material, ten times more than Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens
Mount St. Helens is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is south of Seattle, Washington and northeast of Portland, Oregon. Mount St. Helens takes its English name from the British diplomat Lord St Helens, a...
. Volcanic ash
Volcanic ash
Volcanic ash consists of small tephra, which are bits of pulverized rock and glass created by volcanic eruptions, less than in diameter. There are three mechanisms of volcanic ash formation: gas release under decompression causing magmatic eruptions; thermal contraction from chilling on contact...
containing trace metal
Trace metal
Trace metals are metals in extremely small quantities that reside in or are present in animal and plant cells and tissue. They are a necessary part of good nutrition, although they can be toxic if ingested in excess quantities....
s, was spread by the winds over the world's oceans. It was reported that there was a noticeable increase in the levels of oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
(O2) in the years that followed. The minerals were washed into the oceans, where the iron was absorbed by the phytoplankton and enabled them to fix and metabolise the CO2 and release O2.
Sadly, John Martin died of prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
in 1993. His discovery of the Iron Hypothesis could provide a means of controlling the anthropogenic emissions in the atmosphere, even though they are a minor percentage of the total CO2. It could also be used to re-invigorate the oceans, producing vast quantities of food for marine life, or even farmed to provide an alternative energy source. The majority of the energy consumed today was originally collected by plant life in the oceans and these oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface. Research is being conducted to see if carbon sequestration is possible. Some of the results suggest that any additional carbon fixed through the Iron Hypothesis is merely cycled in the euphotic zone and consumed by heterotrophs. Even so, it would be possible to filter this biomass from the water, as baleen feeders do.
See also
- Biological pumpBiological pumpIn oceanic biogeochemistry, the biological pump is the sum of a suite of biologically-mediated processes that transport carbon from the surface euphotic zone to the ocean's interior.-Overview:...
- Carbon sink
- Global warmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
- Greenhouse effectGreenhouse effectThe greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere...
- Iron fertilizationIron fertilizationIron fertilization is the intentional introduction of iron to the upper ocean to stimulate a phytoplankton bloom. This is intended to enhance biological productivity, which can benefit the marine food chain and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Iron is a trace element necessary for...
- PhotosynthesisPhotosynthesisPhotosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
- PhytoplanktonPhytoplanktonPhytoplankton are the autotrophic component of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν , meaning "plant", and πλαγκτός , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter". Most phytoplankton are too small to be individually seen with the unaided eye...
- Primary productionPrimary production400px|thumb|Global oceanic and terrestrial photoautotroph abundance, from September [[1997]] to August 2000. As an estimate of autotroph biomass, it is only a rough indicator of primary production potential, and not an actual estimate of it...
- Solubility pumpSolubility pumpIn oceanic biogeochemistry, the solubility pump is a physico-chemical process that transports carbon from the ocean's surface to its interior.-Overview:...
- Thermohaline circulationThermohaline circulationThe term thermohaline circulation refers to a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes....
External links
- The Iron Hypothesis Caroline Dopyera, Earth, October 1996
- "On the shoulders of giants" biography of John H. Martin, NASA Earth Observatory
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories Official Website