Great blooms of oceanic algae, called phytoplankton, take carbon out of the atmosphere during photosynthesis, much of which is then taken deep into ocean with them when they die. Scientists have theorized that this mechanism helped cool the earth during historic ice ages by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it at the ocean floor, where it cannot be recycled back into the atmosphere. Inducing algal blooms on a large scale could do the same today, reducing the impact of carbon dioxide on the greenhouse effect and slowing the impact of global climate change.
Indeed, as reported today (July 18) in Nature, scientists have seeded the ocean with iron and watched as the resulting bloom flourished, then died, sinking down to the deep ocean with a significant amount of carbon in tow.
"[The authors] were focused and quite successful at seeing if you added iron, what would be ...
