If fish poo really is that useful, then ocean fertilisation will give you double-bubble. Not only will there be more plankton, but the plankton that gets eaten will make more fish. More fish not only means more fish suppers for people, but evidently more calcium carbonate fish poo too.
Apparrently Pinatubo did a fair bit of ocean fertilisation at the same time as its SO2 experiments. So maybe it's a lot safer than people are making out. A 2009/1/16 dsw_s <[email protected]>: > > I don't get it. If they precipitate calcium carbonate, and then it > dissolves again, the overall effect is nothing, right? If the > carbonate sinks in between, they're removing calcium carbonate from > the surface water (and adding it to deeper water, where we presumably > don't care about it as much). But one of the interventions suggested > for ocean acidification is to add calcium carbonate to the surface, > where the carbonate reacts with H+ to yield bicarbonate -- consuming > the H+, i.e. increasing the pH. Removing CaCO3 from the surface > should have the opposite effect. > > On Jan 16, 10:22 am, Dan Whaley <[email protected]> wrote: >> SCIENCE: Can fish poop limit climate-related ocean acidity? >> (01/16/2009) >> Lauren Morello, E&E reporter >> >> Fish waste appears to play an important role in regulating the oceans' >> delicate chemistry, helping to balance acid levels that can harm sea >> life, according to research published today in Science. >> >> The news comes at a time of increasing concern about the effects that >> humans' carbon dioxide emissions are having on the world's oceans. >> Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the oceans have >> absorbed about a third of human-caused CO2 emissions. That has >> resulted in water 30 percent more acidic than it was before factories, >> cars, planes and other fossil-fuel burning machines became widespread. >> >> And that's a problem for shellfish, corals and marine animals that >> grow hard shells made of a chalky, alkaline mineral called calcium >> carbonate. If ocean water becomes too acidic, it can begin dissolving >> those shells, sometimes faster than the creatures can rebuild them. >> >> And that, according to the new research led by University of Exeter >> scientist Rod Wilson, is where fish poop becomes a crucial part of the >> equation. >> >> Bony fish -- more than 90 percent of all species -- take in seawater >> as they swim. Dissolved calcium in that water combines with carbon >> dioxide from the fishes' bodies to form calcium carbonate, which they >> excrete. >> >> Those fish feces may contribute between 3 and 15 percent of the total >> carbonate concentration in the top 1,000 meters of the ocean, the new >> study found. >> >> All told, the approximately 812 million to 2,050 million tons of bony >> fish in the world's oceans could produce up to 100 million tons of >> calcium carbonate per year, helping to regulate the ocean's acid >> balance. >> >> The hypothesis attempts to answer an enduring question for ocean >> scientists, who believed plankton produced most of the carbonate in >> the ocean -- but their activity couldn't fully account for the >> concentrations researchers observed. >> >> "These findings may help answer a long-standing puzzle facing marine >> chemists," Wilson said. "But they also reveal limitations to our >> current understanding of the marine carbon cycle." > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
