Re: Whales and global warming

From: ABlainey@aol.com
Date: Sun Jan 05 2003 - 20:28:31 MST


In a message dated 05/01/03 16:12:19 GMT Standard Time, bradbury@aeiveos.com
writes:

> By eliminating the predators at the top of the food pyramid,
> one allows an expansion of the numbers next lower level (e.g.
> the krill). These will reduce the population of zooplankton
> which in turn should allow an expansion of the cyanobacteria
> population. Since the cyanobacteria are the primary fixers of CO2,
> the result "should" be to decrease atmospheric CO2 and therefore
> lessen global warming. Now as some know, cyanobacteria are
> nutrient limited by iron in parts of the Pacific and Phosphorous
> in parts of the Atlantic, but eliminating their consumption by
> zooplankton which respire the CO2 back into the ocean and thence
> the atmosphere should have some positive effect.
>

I saw a snippet of a documentary not that long ago where cyanobacteria was
used to lower atmospheric C02 levels out in the ocean. A ship found small
cyanobacteria blooms and seeded them with ferrous oxide. The ship then stayed
with the bloom measuring it and CO2 levels. the result was a sizeable
increase in the size of the bloom for a relatively small amount of iron and
the CO2 level did drop measurably.
       I wish i could remember the details of where, when and who, but I
didn't make a note. I did think it was a great idea and hope the technique
could be developed. It may also has some potential in teraforming high C02
atmosphere planets like mars.

great chain of thought Robert, i love it when ideas like that pop up from
nowhere

Alex



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