{"id":266370,"date":"2023-07-09T14:54:30","date_gmt":"2023-07-09T12:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=266370"},"modified":"2023-07-09T14:54:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-09T12:54:33","slug":"new-research-ponders-consequences-of-ocean-iron-fertilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=266370","title":{"rendered":"New research ponders consequences of ocean iron\u00a0fertilization"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Tallbloke’s Talkshop<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 7, 2023 by\u00a0oldbrew<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Any deliberate large-scale interference in natural processes must be fraught with risks and difficulties. Nevertheless some scientists think they should seek to impose their will on nature, invoking climate models and CO2-obsessed theories as the excuse.<\/em>
\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Removal of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, in addition to major reductions in ongoing emissions, is required to stave off the most severe consequences of climate change,\u00a0claims EurekAlert<\/a> [Talkshop comment \u2013 without offering any evidence]<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large-scale ocean iron fertilization is one of several strategies that could help remove carbon dioxide, but new research published this week in Global Change Biology by a Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences researcher and colleagues shows that it might also negatively affect marine ecosystems in far corners of the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using advanced models of ocean biogeochemistry and ecology, the team showed that iron fertilization in the Southern Ocean could exacerbate climate change-driven nutrient shortages and productivity losses in the tropics, potentially hurting the coastal fisheries on which many people rely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings illustrate both the interconnected nature of the ocean and the need for more objective research on the relative advantages and unintended consequences of marine carbon dioxide removal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese modeling experiments demonstrate the need to understand not only the implications of marine carbon dioxide removal strategies for carbon cycling, but also the ecological and \u2018downstream\u2019 implications, even those decades in the future or thousands of miles away,\u201d said Bigelow Laboratory Senior Research Scientist Ben Twining, one of the study\u2019s co-lead authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ocean is the planet\u2019s largest sink for carbon emissions. Unsurprisingly, then, plans for carbon dioxide removal are increasingly focused on marine-based strategies like iron fertilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basic idea is that adding valuable micronutrients to certain areas of the ocean \u2014 like the iron-limited Southern Ocean \u2014 will stimulate primary productivity by allowing other nutrients to be more completely consumed, enhancing the amount of carbon dioxide that phytoplankton absorb at the surface and, ultimately, sink to the seafloor when they die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocates for ocean iron fertilization have pointed out that the solution doesn\u2019t require land or freshwater and can be implemented more quickly than other strategies. And past modeling efforts have shown that iron fertilization does indeed reduce atmospheric carbon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, early research also showed that fertilization could exacerbate a process known as \u201cnutrient robbing\u201d by hampering the supply of critical nutrients from iron-limited areas to adjacent regions, in turn reducing the amount of marine life and productivity at the tropics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of that, a 2021 report by the U.S. National Academies of Science argued that the current knowledge base around marine carbon dioxide removal approaches like fertilization was insufficient, especially when it came to scientists\u2019 understanding of how fertilization would interact with other climate-change driven changes to ocean processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help fill some of those knowledge gaps, the authors of the current study expanded previous modeling work, incorporating recent research on how phytoplankton use micronutrients like iron and additional considerations for climate change and fisheries impacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the new aspects of our work was to layer ocean iron fertilization on top of climate change,\u201d Twining said. \u201cWe also connected our results to a fisheries model, as a way to put the predicted changes in productivity into terms that are more meaningful to people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their results showed a five percent decline in the biomass of fish and marine species in the tropics, including economically important coastal areas, due to large-scale iron fertilization. This was on top of a 15 percent decline expected due to climate change as warming temperatures stratify the ocean, depriving the surface of critical nutrients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s notable how the \u2018fingerprint\u2019 of ocean iron fertilization on the levels of nutrients was similar to that expected from climate change,\u201d said co-lead author of the study, Alessandro Tagliabue at the University of Liverpool. \u201cThis raises significant hurdles to the detection and monitoring of any negative impacts of fertilization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full article\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any deliberate large-scale interference in natural processes must be fraught with risks and difficulties. Nevertheless some scientists think they should seek to impose their will on nature, invoking climate models and CO2-obsessed theories as the excuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":266380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691818153,691818076,691820918,691819075],"class_list":["post-266370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-models","tag-co2","tag-geoengineering","tag-modelling","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/00Pg_317-2.jpg?fit=1343%2C1007&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-17ii","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":331570,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=331570","url_meta":{"origin":266370,"position":0},"title":"The Claim \u2018Exxon Knew\u2019 Their Products Induced \u2018Catastrophic Climate Impacts\u2019 In The 1970s Is Bunk","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/05\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"In the 1970s and 1980s ExxonMobil did not know that their reports would be so wrongly misinterpreted in the 2010s.","rel":"","context":"In \"1977 Report\"","block_context":{"text":"1977 Report","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=1977-report"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0ExxonMobil-logo.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0ExxonMobil-logo.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0ExxonMobil-logo.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0ExxonMobil-logo.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0ExxonMobil-logo.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":273850,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=273850","url_meta":{"origin":266370,"position":1},"title":"\u201cThere Is No Climate Crisis\u201d\u20261600 Scientists Worldwide, Nobel Prize Laureate Sign Declaration","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/16\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The message is clear: there is no climate crisis. The number of critical scientists who no longer submit to the dogma of the alleged man-made climate catastrophe is growing.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate crisis\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate crisis","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-crisis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00tince.png?fit=1200%2C642&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00tince.png?fit=1200%2C642&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00tince.png?fit=1200%2C642&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00tince.png?fit=1200%2C642&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/00tince.png?fit=1200%2C642&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":385343,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=385343","url_meta":{"origin":266370,"position":2},"title":"Scafetta: Climate Models Have\u00a0Issues","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/27\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) global climate models\u00a0(GCMs) assess\u00a0that nearly\u00a0100% of global surface warming\u00a0observed\u00a0between 1850\u20131900 and 2011\u20132020 is attributable to\u00a0anthropogenic drivers like\u00a0greenhouse gas emissions.\u00a0These models\u00a0also generate future climate projections based on shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs), aiding in risk assessment and the development of costly \u201cNet-Zero\u201d climate mitigation strategies.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-CMIP6-climate-models.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-CMIP6-climate-models.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-CMIP6-climate-models.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-CMIP6-climate-models.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0-CMIP6-climate-models.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":317685,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=317685","url_meta":{"origin":266370,"position":3},"title":"The Honest Story of Climate Change: Part I: Weighed down by fear and intimidation.","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/15\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"There is no climate crisis, even if politicians, climate institutes, and the media would have you believe there is. Climate change is a fact, but it is a change as in everything changes, both inside and outside our atmosphere. No surprise! We will show that we should not turn climate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/5f3c4f30cb34dc2ac325aab70c566517.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/5f3c4f30cb34dc2ac325aab70c566517.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/5f3c4f30cb34dc2ac325aab70c566517.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/5f3c4f30cb34dc2ac325aab70c566517.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/5f3c4f30cb34dc2ac325aab70c566517.jpeg?fit=1200%2C673&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":275337,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=275337","url_meta":{"origin":266370,"position":4},"title":"German Scientists: Global Warming A \u201cCorrupt\u201d, Fear-Mongering Scheme \u201cHeaded By Super-Rich\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/24\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Germans Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter D\u00f6hler, a natural scientist and environmentalist, and Josef Kowatsch, a nature conservationist, have\u00a0published an essay at EIKE\u00a0alleging \u201cscientific corruption and waste of taxes\u201d Germany in the corrupt business model that is \u201cclimate science.\u201d\u00a0","rel":"","context":"In \"business model\"","block_context":{"text":"business model","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=business-model"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0indulgences.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0indulgences.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0indulgences.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0indulgences.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0indulgences.jpg?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":342614,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=342614","url_meta":{"origin":266370,"position":5},"title":"The Overlooked Role of Atmospheric Rivers in Arctic Sea Ice Loss: A Challenge to the CO2-Centric Narrative","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"09\/11\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The study on atmospheric rivers has given us a valuable insight into the complexity of Arctic sea ice variability. The role of ARs in both ice melt and recovery provides a clear challenge to the simplistic view that Arctic changes are primarily driven by CO2 levels. This should prompt us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Arctic sea ice\"","block_context":{"text":"Arctic sea ice","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=arctic-sea-ice"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/0arctic_ice_loss.jpg?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/0arctic_ice_loss.jpg?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/0arctic_ice_loss.jpg?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/0arctic_ice_loss.jpg?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/0arctic_ice_loss.jpg?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=266370"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266383,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266370\/revisions\/266383"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/266380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=266370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=266370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=266370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}