Ice age riddle: what burped CO2 and wasn’t ocean or Neanderthal?

During the Earth’s ice ages the Pacific Ocean stored large amounts of carbon, which for some reason it released again close to the last glacial period’s end, warming the world and melting most of the icecaps. That is how the … Continue reading

Threefold increase of dust led to -40 ppm CO2 Antarctic iron fertilisation during Pleistocene

An international team of researchers today in Nature explain the importance of dust storms for climate variability, not just for the radiative balance, but also for the Earth’s carbon cycle. For geoengineering minds: iron fertilisation at least seems to have … Continue reading

Iron fertilisation geoengineering affects deep sea ecology too

Ocean iron fertilisation, one of the most discussed CDR geoengineering proposals, deliberately tries to stimulate biological activity in the upper ocean. New research shows this in turn affects ecology at the ocean floor too. Let’s just hope sea cucumbers don’t … Continue reading

Antarctic krill promotes CO2 uptake by plankton through iron fertilisation

Iron is very rare in the upper layers of the world´s oceans, where photosynthesis is possible and therefore biological activity and concentration of living biomass is highest, making the mineral a growth-limiting nutrient in 40 percent of the world’s oceans, … Continue reading

Today’s paradox: hunt for oxygen-rich seas may be bad news for hypoxic plankton

Certain types of plankton have adapted themselves to living in water with low oxygen content, so they can hide away from fish when digesting [through anaerobic glycolysis] and meanwhile suppressing their metabolism. Only at night, when in search for food, … Continue reading