Ocean Nourishment
Encyclopedia
Ocean Nourishment is a type of geoengineering
based on the purposeful introduction of nutrient
s to the upper ocean
to increase marine food production and to sequester carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere. Fertilization can also potentially create sulfur aerosols which reduce the rate of global warming. The marine food chain is based on photosynthesis by marine phytoplankton
which combine carbon with inorganic nutrients to produce organic matter. The production of organic matter is limited in general by the availability of nutrients, most commonly nitrogen or iron
. Numerous experiments have been carried out demonstrating how iron fertilization
can increase phytoplankton productivity. Nitrogen is a limiting nutrient over much of the ocean and can be supplied by from a number of sources including fixation by cyanobacteria. Carbon-to-iron ratios in phytoplankton are much larger than carbon-to-nitrogen or carbon-to-phosphorus ratios, so iron has the highest potential for sequestration per unit mass added.
Ocean Nourishment offers the prospect of both reducing the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases with the aim of avoiding dangerous climate change
and at the same time increasing the sustainable fish stocks. It promises to do this by increasing the ocean primary production
.
Ocean Nourishment promises to be a way of creating low cost protein
in sufficient quantity to supply the needs of the additional two billion people expected to populate the earth before the population stabilizes at values near eight billion. While manipulation of the land ecosystem
in support of agriculture
for the benefit of humans has long been accepted it is a new concept to enhance the large scale ocean productivity and so creates some apprehension.
with the purpose to fertilize the ocean with urea
, a nitrogen
rich substance, to encourage phytoplankton
growth. Also considered by Karl.
An Australian company, Ocean Nourishment Corporation (ONC), plans to sink hundreds of tonnes of urea into the ocean, in order to boost the growth of CO2-absorbing phytoplankton, as a way to combat climate change. In 2007, Sydney-based ONC completed an experiment involving one tonne of nitrogen in the Sulu Sea
off the Philippines.
This technique can give 0.38W/m2 of globally averaged negative forcing, which is sufficient to reverse the warming effect of current levels of around a quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. It is notable, however, that CO2 levels will have risen by the time this could be achieved.
trials, “One Ocean Nourishment plant will remove approximately 5-8 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere for each year of operation, equivalent to offsetting annual emissions from a typical 1200 MW coal-fired power station or the short-term sequestration from million hectares of new growth forest”.
Tubbataha’s marine biodiversity is virtually unparalleled by any other in the world today and nitrogen loading in coral reef areas can lead to community shifts towards algal overgrowth of corals and ecosystem disruption. This makes Sulu sea unlikely candidate for urea fertilization experiment.
According to David Freestone and Rosemary Rayfuse in June 2007 London convention issued a Statement of concern noting 'the potential for large scale ocean iron fertilization to have negative impacts on the marine environment and human health'. But word 'large scale' was not defined properly. It is believed that large scale would refer to operations on the scale then planned by Planktos.Planktos is USA-based company, recently abandoned its plans to conduct 6 fertilzation cruises from 2007 2009, each of which would have dissolved up to 100 t of iron over a 10,000 km^2 tract of ocean.
UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has examined the ocean fertilization issue and determined that it should not be pursued because there is very little documented increase in actual long-term sequestration of CO2 in the deep waters or sediments.
To reduce carbon and greenhousegas emissions any country should met UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol criteria. However Kyoto protocol do not accept any form of carbon sink projects except the forestation and reforestation projects.
which reflect sunlight and modify the Earth's albedo
, this creating a cooling
effect which reduces some of the effects of climate change
. Enhancing the natural sulfur cycle
in the Southern Ocean
ocean by fertilizing a small portion with iron
in order to enhance dimethyl sulfide
production and cloud reflectivity
achieves this. The goal is to slow Antarctic
ice from melting and raising sea level
. Such techniques also tend to sequester carbon, but in this specific project the enhancement of cloud albedo was both the desired outcome and measured result.
Geoengineering
The concept of Geoengineering refers to the deliberate large-scale engineering and manipulation of the planetary environment to combat or counteract anthropogenic changes in atmospheric chemistry The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in 2007 that geoengineering options, such...
based on the purposeful introduction of nutrient
Nutrient
A nutrient is a chemical that an organism needs to live and grow or a substance used in an organism's metabolism which must be taken in from its environment. They are used to build and repair tissues, regulate body processes and are converted to and used as energy...
s to the upper ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
to increase marine food production and to sequester carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
from the atmosphere. Fertilization can also potentially create sulfur aerosols which reduce the rate of global warming. The marine food chain is based on photosynthesis by marine phytoplankton
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton are the autotrophic component of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν , meaning "plant", and πλαγκτός , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter". Most phytoplankton are too small to be individually seen with the unaided eye...
which combine carbon with inorganic nutrients to produce organic matter. The production of organic matter is limited in general by the availability of nutrients, most commonly nitrogen or iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
. Numerous experiments have been carried out demonstrating how iron fertilization
Iron fertilization
Iron fertilization is the intentional introduction of iron to the upper ocean to stimulate a phytoplankton bloom. This is intended to enhance biological productivity, which can benefit the marine food chain and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Iron is a trace element necessary for...
can increase phytoplankton productivity. Nitrogen is a limiting nutrient over much of the ocean and can be supplied by from a number of sources including fixation by cyanobacteria. Carbon-to-iron ratios in phytoplankton are much larger than carbon-to-nitrogen or carbon-to-phosphorus ratios, so iron has the highest potential for sequestration per unit mass added.
Ocean Nourishment offers the prospect of both reducing the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases with the aim of avoiding dangerous climate change
Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change
The related terms "avoiding dangerous climate change" and "preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system" date to 1995 and earlier, in the Second Assesment Report of the International Panel on Climate Change and previous science it cites.In 2002, the United Nations...
and at the same time increasing the sustainable fish stocks. It promises to do this by increasing the ocean primary production
Primary production
400px|thumb|Global oceanic and terrestrial photoautotroph abundance, from September [[1997]] to August 2000. As an estimate of autotroph biomass, it is only a rough indicator of primary production potential, and not an actual estimate of it...
.
Ocean Nourishment promises to be a way of creating low cost protein
Protein
Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...
in sufficient quantity to supply the needs of the additional two billion people expected to populate the earth before the population stabilizes at values near eight billion. While manipulation of the land ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
in support of agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
for the benefit of humans has long been accepted it is a new concept to enhance the large scale ocean productivity and so creates some apprehension.
Phosphorus fertilization
This technique can give 0.83W/m2 of globally averaged negative forcing, which is sufficient to reverse the warming effect of about half the current levels of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. It is notable, however, that CO2 levels will have risen by the time this could be achieved.Nitrogen fertilization
Proposed by Ian JonesIan Jones
Ian Jones may refer to:*Ian Jones , Australian author and film writer*Ian Jones , New-Zealand rugby player*Ian Jones , British bronze medal winner at the 2008 Summer Paralympics...
with the purpose to fertilize the ocean with urea
Urea
Urea or carbamide is an organic compound with the chemical formula CO2. The molecule has two —NH2 groups joined by a carbonyl functional group....
, a nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
rich substance, to encourage phytoplankton
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton are the autotrophic component of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν , meaning "plant", and πλαγκτός , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter". Most phytoplankton are too small to be individually seen with the unaided eye...
growth. Also considered by Karl.
An Australian company, Ocean Nourishment Corporation (ONC), plans to sink hundreds of tonnes of urea into the ocean, in order to boost the growth of CO2-absorbing phytoplankton, as a way to combat climate change. In 2007, Sydney-based ONC completed an experiment involving one tonne of nitrogen in the Sulu Sea
Sulu Sea
The Sulu Sea is a body of water in the southwestern area of the Philippines, separated from the South China Sea in the northwest by Palawan and from the Celebes Sea in the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago. Borneo is found to the southwest and Visayas to the northeast.Sulu Sea contains a number of...
off the Philippines.
This technique can give 0.38W/m2 of globally averaged negative forcing, which is sufficient to reverse the warming effect of current levels of around a quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. It is notable, however, that CO2 levels will have risen by the time this could be achieved.
Advantages
"Ocean Nourishment Corporation has claimed that in the long run, beyond Sulu SeaSulu Sea
The Sulu Sea is a body of water in the southwestern area of the Philippines, separated from the South China Sea in the northwest by Palawan and from the Celebes Sea in the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago. Borneo is found to the southwest and Visayas to the northeast.Sulu Sea contains a number of...
trials, “One Ocean Nourishment plant will remove approximately 5-8 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere for each year of operation, equivalent to offsetting annual emissions from a typical 1200 MW coal-fired power station or the short-term sequestration from million hectares of new growth forest”.
Nitrogen fertilization is not as efficient as iron fertilization.
Algal cell chemical composition is 106 carbon: 16 nitrogen: 1 phosphorus: 0.0001 iron. In other words for each atom of iron there are 1060000 atoms of carbon are captured, however for one nitrogen atom only 6 atoms of carbon are captured.Urea fertilization may not benefit fisheries
It has been said that addition of urea to the ocean can cause blooms of phytoplankton that is source of food of fish. However, if cyanobactaria and dinoflagellates dominate the phytoplankton assemblage that are considered poor quality food for fish then fish quantity cannot be counted as rising. Another disadvantage is the fact that fossil fuels are used to produce urea. The fossil fuels contain buried CO2, so using them is not benign from the environmental point of view.Sulu sea biodiversity
In Sulu SeaSulu Sea
The Sulu Sea is a body of water in the southwestern area of the Philippines, separated from the South China Sea in the northwest by Palawan and from the Celebes Sea in the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago. Borneo is found to the southwest and Visayas to the northeast.Sulu Sea contains a number of...
Tubbataha’s marine biodiversity is virtually unparalleled by any other in the world today and nitrogen loading in coral reef areas can lead to community shifts towards algal overgrowth of corals and ecosystem disruption. This makes Sulu sea unlikely candidate for urea fertilization experiment.
Ocean nourishment and International Law
Iron, urea, or phosphorus fertilization of ocean is thought to be dilemma looking from international law perspective. From one perspective United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC 1992) has accepted to make mitigation acts if amount exceeds normal quantity where climate change can adapt. On the other hand international law protects and preserve marine environment from scientific uncertainty. Some commercial companies like Climos and GreenSea Ventures, and Australian based Ocean Nourishment Corporation, are to engage in urea and iron fertilization process. These companies invite green co-sponsors to finance their activities in return for provision of carbon credits to offset investors’ CO2 emissions.According to David Freestone and Rosemary Rayfuse in June 2007 London convention issued a Statement of concern noting 'the potential for large scale ocean iron fertilization to have negative impacts on the marine environment and human health'. But word 'large scale' was not defined properly. It is believed that large scale would refer to operations on the scale then planned by Planktos.Planktos is USA-based company, recently abandoned its plans to conduct 6 fertilzation cruises from 2007 2009, each of which would have dissolved up to 100 t of iron over a 10,000 km^2 tract of ocean.
UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has examined the ocean fertilization issue and determined that it should not be pursued because there is very little documented increase in actual long-term sequestration of CO2 in the deep waters or sediments.
To reduce carbon and greenhousegas emissions any country should met UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol criteria. However Kyoto protocol do not accept any form of carbon sink projects except the forestation and reforestation projects.
Law of sea issues
According to United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(LOSC 1982), all states are obliged to take individually and jointly all measures necessary to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment, to prohibit the transfer, either directly or indirectly, of damage or hazards from one area to another, and to prohibit the transformation of one type pollution to another. Without deep research it is not clear to say that fertilization of oceans are safe way to fight against carbon and greenhousegas emissions.Solar radiation management
As well as carbon sequestration, ocean fertilization can also be used to create sulfate aerosolsSulfate aerosols
The term sulfate aerosols is used for a suspension of fine solid particles of a sulfate or tiny droplets of a solution of a sulfate or of sulfuric acid . They are produced by chemical reactions in the atmosphere from gaseous precursors...
which reflect sunlight and modify the Earth's albedo
Albedo
Albedo , or reflection coefficient, is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface. It is defined as the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it...
, this creating a cooling
Cooling
Cooling is the transfer of thermal energy via thermal radiation, heat conduction or convection. It may also refer to:-Techniques:* Air conditioning* Air cooling* Computer cooling* Cryogenics* Conduction * Infrared solar cells* Laser cooling...
effect which reduces some of the effects of climate change
Climate change
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
. Enhancing the natural sulfur cycle
Sulfur cycle
The sulfur cycle are the collection of processes by which sulfur moves to and from minerals and living systems. Such biogeochemical cycles are important in geology because they affect many minerals...
in the Southern Ocean
Southern Ocean
The Southern Ocean comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60°S latitude and encircling Antarctica. It is usually regarded as the fourth-largest of the five principal oceanic divisions...
ocean by fertilizing a small portion with iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
in order to enhance dimethyl sulfide
Dimethyl sulfide
Dimethyl sulfide or methylthiomethane is an organosulfur compound with the formula 2S. Dimethyl sulfide is a water-insoluble flammable liquid that boils at and has a characteristic disagreeable odor. It is a component of the smell produced from cooking of certain vegetables, notably maize,...
production and cloud reflectivity
Reflectivity
In optics and photometry, reflectivity is the fraction of incident radiation reflected by a surface. In general it must be treated as a directional property that is a function of the reflected direction, the incident direction, and the incident wavelength...
achieves this. The goal is to slow Antarctic
Antarctic
The Antarctic is the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence...
ice from melting and raising sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
. Such techniques also tend to sequester carbon, but in this specific project the enhancement of cloud albedo was both the desired outcome and measured result.
See also
- Iron fertilizationIron fertilizationIron fertilization is the intentional introduction of iron to the upper ocean to stimulate a phytoplankton bloom. This is intended to enhance biological productivity, which can benefit the marine food chain and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Iron is a trace element necessary for...
- Carbon dioxide sinkCarbon dioxide sinkA carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period. The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is known as carbon sequestration...
- GeoengineeringGeoengineeringThe concept of Geoengineering refers to the deliberate large-scale engineering and manipulation of the planetary environment to combat or counteract anthropogenic changes in atmospheric chemistry The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in 2007 that geoengineering options, such...
- Planetary engineeringPlanetary engineeringPlanetary engineering is the application of technology for the purpose of influencing the global properties of a planet. The goal of this theoretical task is usually to make other worlds habitable for life....