Iron From Antarctic Rocks Fuels Algae Growth 40
MTorrice writes "The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is a significant carbon dioxide sink. Phytoplankton in the ocean pull down a large amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Oceanographers have wondered where these photosynthetic microbes get enough iron to fuel this process. A new study (abstract) suggests that iron leached into the sea from rock weathering and bacterial activity on Antarctica may be part of the answer. Climate change could actually accelerate this iron release, leading to larger blooms of phytoplankton and more carbon dioxide uptake by the ocean, the researchers say."
Re:What the Earth is a buffered system? (Score:4, Funny)
That has to be bullshit because we know climate change is real and man made. The planet is doomed unless everyone rides their bike to work and eats rice cakes.
I'm sure it will please you to know that your straw man has helped to sequester just a bit of carbon that would otherwise have remained in the atmosphere!
Re:What the Earth is a buffered system? (Score:4, Funny)
That has to be bullshit because we know climate change is real and man made. The planet is doomed unless everyone rides their bike to work and eats rice cakes.
I'm sure it will please you to know that your straw man has helped to sequester just a bit of carbon that would otherwise have remained in the atmosphere!
But if you burn that straw man, you'll release it back again!
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My reply is always "Your body is a self regulating system therefore whatever you do to it it will just compensate. You can prove the validity of your hypothesis about the planet by simply quaffing a few litres of industrial bleach."
Re:What the Earth is a buffered system? (Score:5, Interesting)
The ocean acting as a buffer isn't a good thing, this causes ocean acidification which chemically attacks coral and shelled sea creatures.
Re:What the Earth is a buffered system? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Seeing how badly our coral ecosystems are damaged, NASA people were commenting about this two decades ago from satellite imagery... We really aught to consider those a high priority for preservation. In my opinion.
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http://lmgtfy.com/?q=coral+die+off [lmgtfy.com]
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This bears my further investigation... how long ago? And how fast did things change...
If we change the acidity quick enough before adaptation can manage to slowly change our ecosystems than your argument is invalid.
I'm thinking a century instead of thousands of years.
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He could be talking about this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event [wikipedia.org]
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/april/prehistoric-mass-extinction-042710.html [stanford.edu]
For a while we didn't have coral.
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Just want to say thanks for the links GameboyRMH
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A short jaunt to wiki tells me what I want.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification [wikipedia.org]
This rate is 100 times faster than any changes in ocean acidity in the last 20 million years, making it unlikely that marine life can somehow adapt to the changes.
Thankfully wiki has citations too. Wiki link is dead, but theres this article http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/04/ocean-acidification/kolbert-text [nationalgeographic.com]
Anyway I did A lot of reading Nat Geo and other articles between video games. Also talking to people about and discussing it and getting their opinions.
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can be a great thing if we toss some iron into the seas, the critters with shells will multiply and get the pH up. problem solved
Re:What the Earth is a buffered system? (Score:4, Informative)
Also anti-buffered, eg. when the Siberian permafrost melts.
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Also anti-buffered, eg. when the Siberian permafrost melts.
There might be a little reprieve.
To the Horror of Global Warming Alarmists, Global Cooling Is Here [forbes.com]
Mwhahahaha.... (Score:5, Interesting)
http://deusex.wikia.com/wiki/Panchaea [wikia.com]
Dystopian Future HO!
The officially stated purpose of Panchaea is to counter the effects of the global warming. In order to do so, the facility promotes growth of phytoplankton by dispersing iron into the ocean. The underlying expectation is that more carbon will be trapped in biomass and then deposited on the ocean floor as sediment.
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I agree it was a fun game. I also agree about the endings. Unfortunately it really missed its full potential. I think due to time constraints with the storyline.
Need advice. (Score:3, Funny)
Does this mean I should cancel my Prius order and go for an Escalade instead?
Re:Need advice. (Score:5, Funny)
Do not worry, fuel prices and energy costs will continue to inflate faster then inflation of fiat currency =) And celebrity boobs.
You made a good choice!
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Paint it with graffiti and put gold rims on it and you will be a pretentious baller ;p
Is it.. (Score:2)
Getting popcorn for the upcoming comment battle.
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Well, phytoplankton remove an average of 4x their weight in CO2 over their lifetime. The oxygen doesn't count, there's carbon in their waste and then some in their bodies which move up the food chain and are eventually deposited on the sea floor when large predators die.
Plankton outweight all other sea animals combined.
Plankton are only out numbered by Bacteria as far as individual organisms go...
Plankton already sequester 30% of all CO2 released on earth (trees are like 2%)
So yes, plankton blooms could eas
Iron from Anartic doesn't rock (Score:4, Funny)
I saw them a couple of years ago at Ozzfest. They're basically an Iron Maiden / Iced Earth copycat, with the pretentiousness of an 80's hair band but even less talent.
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I think we have the science and technology to figure it out to some degree. It would require a bit of engineering and a lot of investment. And possibly a few governments working together. As well as marine biologists, engineers, and probably some types of scientists.
But I think on a scale of 0 to 1, its closer to 1 =)