Ocean fertilization: a potential means of geoengineering?

Lampitt, Richard S.; Achterberg, Eric P.; Anderson, Thomas R.; Hughes, J.A.; Iglesias‐Rodríguez, M. Débora; Kelly-Gerreyn, B.A.; Lucas, Michael I.; Popova, Ekaterina; Sanders, Richard; Shepherd, J. G.; Smythe-Wright, Denise; Yool, Andrew

doi:10.1098/rsta.2008.0139

Cited by 159 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 106 publications

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“…However, ecological or biogeoengineering options have also been proposed. These biological options include (i) ocean fertilization by supplementation with iron or macro-or micro-nutrients that are limiting [7,8], and (ii) carbon sequestration as biomass in agricultural and forest ecosystems [9,10]. There are also opportunities for (iii) reducing predicted increases in global surface temperatures by increasing the albedo of crop plants [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peatland geoengineering: an alternative approach to terrestrial carbon sequestration

Freeman

Fenner

Shirsat

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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Terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems contribute almost equally to the sequestration of ca 50 per cent of anthropogenic CO 2 emissions, and already play a role in minimizing our impact on Earth's climate. On land, the majority of the sequestered carbon enters soil carbon stores. Almost one-third of that soil carbon can be found in peatlands, an area covering just 2-3% of the Earth's landmass. Peatlands are thus well established as powerful agents of carbon capture and storage; the preservation of archaeological artefacts, such as ancient bog bodies, further attest to their exceptional preservative properties. Peatlands have higher carbon storage densities per unit ecosystem area than either the oceans or dry terrestrial systems. However, despite attempts over a number of years at enhancing carbon capture in the oceans or in land-based afforestation schemes, no attempt has yet been made to optimize peatland carbon storage capacity or even to harness peatlands to store externally captured carbon. Recent studies suggest that peatland carbon sequestration is due to the inhibitory effects of phenolic compounds that create an 'enzymic latch' on decomposition. Here, we propose to harness that mechanism in a series of peatland geoengineering strategies whereby molecular, biogeochemical, agronomical and afforestation approaches increase carbon capture and long-term sequestration in peat-forming terrestrial ecosystems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peatland geoengineering: an alternative approach to terrestrial carbon sequestration

Freeman

Fenner

Shirsat

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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“…While numerous artificial (Boyd et al, 2000(Boyd et al, , 2004Gervais et al, 2002;Buesseler et al, 2004Buesseler et al, , 2005de Baar et al, 2005;Hoffmann et al, 2006;Boyd et al, 2012;Smetacek et al, 2012) and natural (Blain et al, 2007;Pollard et al, 2009;Zhou et al, 2010Zhou et al, , 2013 ocean iron-fertilization experiments in the Southern Ocean have demonstrated the role of iron in enhancing the phytoplankton biomass and production in high-nutrient low-chlorophyll (HNLC) regions, determining to what extent fertilization could modify the transfer of particulate organic carbon (POC) to the deep ocean is far from being comprehensively achieved (Lampitt et al, 2008;Morris and Charette, 2013;Le Moigne et al, 2014;Robinson et al, 2014). This is partly due to the short term over which the observations were made, precluding extrapolation to longer timescales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early spring mesopelagic carbon remineralization and transfer efficiency in the naturally iron-fertilized Kerguelen area

et al. 2015

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Abstract. We report on the zonal variability of mesopelagic particulate organic carbon remineralization and deep carbon transfer potential during the Kerguelen Ocean and Plateau compared Study 2 expedition (KEOPS 2; OctoberNovember 2011) in an area of the polar front supporting recurrent massive blooms from natural Fe fertilization. Mesopelagic carbon remineralization (MR) was assessed using the excess, non-lithogenic particulate barium (Ba xs ) inventories in mesopelagic waters and compared with bacterial production (BP), surface primary production (PP) and export production (EP). Results for this early season study are compared with the results obtained during a previous study (2005; KEOPS 1) for the same area at a later stage of the phytoplankton bloom. Our results reveal the patchiness of the seasonal advancement and of the establishment of remineralization processes between the plateau (A3) and polar front sites during KEOPS 2. For the Kerguelen plateau (A3 site) we observe a similar functioning of the mesopelagic ecosystem during both seasons (spring and summer), with low and rather stable remineralization fluxes in the mesopelagic column (150-400 m). The shallow water column (∼ 500 m), the lateral advection, the zooplankton grazing pressure and the pulsed nature of the particulate organic carbon (POC) transfer at A3 seem to drive the extent of MR processes on the plateau. For deeper stations (> 2000 m) located on the margin, inside a polar front meander, as well as in the vicinity of the polar front, east of Kerguelen, remineralization in the upper 400 m in general represents a larger part of surface carbon export. However, when considering the upper 800 m, in some cases, the entire flux of exported carbon is remineralized. In the polar front meander, where successive stations form a time series, two successive events of particle transfer were evidenced by remineralization rates: a first mesopelagic and deep transfer from a past bloom before the cruise, and a second transfer expanding at mesopelagic layers during the cruise. Regarding the deep carbon transfer efficiency, it appeared that above the plateau (A3 site) the mesopelagic remineralization was not a major barrier to the transfer of organic matter to the seafloor (close to 500 m). There, the efficiency of carbon transfer to the bottom waters (> 400 m) as assessed by PP, EP and MR fluxes comparisons reached up to 87 % of the carbon exported from the upper 150 m. In contrast, at the deeper locations, mesopelagic remineralization clearly limited the transfer of carbon to depths of > 400 m. For sites at the margin of the plateau (station E-4W) and the polar front (station F-L), mesopelagic remineralization even exceeded Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. S. H. M. Jacquet et al.: Early season mesopelagic carbon remineralizationupper 150 m export, resulting in a zero transfer efficiency to depths > 800 m. In the polar front meander (time series), the capacity of the meander to transfer carbon to depth > 800 ...

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“…Organisms inhabiting the deep seabed are the ultimate recipients of this particulate material. Any organic carbon that escapes mineralization in this environment is liable to be sequestered for millennia, ultimately representing the sequestration of atmospheric CO 2 (Lampitt et al, 2008). Deep-sea sediments are estimated to bury up to 300 Tg C y À1 globally (Burdige, 2007) and hence play a major role in the global carbon cycle (Jahnke, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource quality affects carbon cycling in deep-sea sediments

et al. 2012

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Deep-sea sediments cover B70% of Earth's surface and represent the largest interface between the biological and geological cycles of carbon. Diatoms and zooplankton faecal pellets naturally transport organic material from the upper ocean down to the deep seabed, but how these qualitatively different substrates affect the fate of carbon in this permanently cold environment remains unknown. We added equal quantities of 13 C-labelled diatoms and faecal pellets to a cold water (À0.7 1C) sediment community retrieved from 1080 m in the Faroe-Shetland Channel, Northeast Atlantic, and quantified carbon mineralization and uptake by the resident bacteria and macrofauna over a 6-day period. High-quality, diatom-derived carbon was mineralized 4300% faster than that from low-quality faecal pellets, demonstrating that qualitative differences in organic matter drive major changes in the residence time of carbon at the deep seabed. Benthic bacteria dominated biological carbon processing in our experiments, yet showed no evidence of resource qualitylimited growth; they displayed lower growth efficiencies when respiring diatoms. These effects were consistent in contrasting months. We contend that respiration and growth in the resident sediment microbial communities were substrate and temperature limited, respectively. Our study has important implications for how future changes in the biochemical makeup of exported organic matter will affect the balance between mineralization and sequestration of organic carbon in the largest ecosystem on Earth.

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Ocean fertilization: a potential means of geoengineering?

Cited by 159 publications

References 106 publications

Peatland geoengineering: an alternative approach to terrestrial carbon sequestration

Peatland geoengineering: an alternative approach to terrestrial carbon sequestration

Early spring mesopelagic carbon remineralization and transfer efficiency in the naturally iron-fertilized Kerguelen area

Resource quality affects carbon cycling in deep-sea sediments

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