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The ocean is a critical component of the Earth's climate system, and the iron cycle plays a key role in ocean primary productivity and marine ecosystem function. Iron limitation has been known to limit the efficiency of the biological carbon pump.
Iron is a key micronutrient in primary productivity, [49] and a limiting nutrient in the Southern ocean, eastern equatorial Pacific, and the subarctic Pacific referred to as High-Nutrient, Low-Chlorophyll (HNLC) regions of the ocean. [50] Iron in the ocean cycles between plankton, aggregated particulates (non-bioavailable iron), and dissolved ...
A biogeochemical cycle, or more generally a cycle of matter, [1] is the movement and transformation of chemical elements and compounds between living organisms, the atmosphere, and the Earth's crust. Major biogeochemical cycles include the carbon cycle , the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle .
Ocean iron fertilization is an example of a geoengineering technique that involves intentional introduction of iron-rich deposits into oceans, and is aimed to enhance biological productivity of organisms in ocean waters in order to increase carbon dioxide (CO 2) uptake from the atmosphere, possibly resulting in mitigating its global warming effects.
Iron is a critical phytoplankton micronutrient necessary for enzyme catalysis and electron transport. [3] [4] Between the 1930s and '80s, it was hypothesized that iron is a limiting ocean micronutrient, but there were not sufficient methods reliably to detect iron in seawater to confirm this hypothesis. [5]
Marine chemistry, also known as ocean chemistry or chemical oceanography, is the study of the chemical composition and processes of the world’s oceans, including the interactions between seawater, the atmosphere, the seafloor, and marine organisms. [2]
Another cause of concern is the sheer amount of urea needed to capture the same amount of carbon as eq. iron fertilization. The nitrogen to iron ratio in a typical algae cell is 16:0.0001, meaning that for every iron atom added to the ocean a substantial larger amount of carbon is captured compared to adding one atom of nitrogen. [35]
Born in Old Lyme, Connecticut, he is known for his research on the role of iron as a phytoplankton micronutrient, and its significance for so-called "High-Nutrient, Low Chlorophyll" regions of the oceans. [1] He further advocated the use of iron fertilization to enhance oceanic primary production and act as a sink for fossil fuel carbon dioxide.