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Geoengineering Responses to Climate Change pp 53–72Cite as

Ocean Fertilization for Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere

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Abstract

The ocean is a major sink for both preindustrial and anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Both physically and biogeochemically driven pumps, termed the solubility and biological pump, respectively Fig.5.1) are responsible for the majority of carbon sequestration in the ocean’s interior [1]. The solubility pump relies on ocean circulation – specifically the impact of cooling of the upper ocean at high latitudes both enhances the solubility of carbon dioxide and the density of the waters which sink to great depth (the so-called deepwater formation) and thereby sequester carbon in the form of dissolved inorganic carbon (Fig.5.1). The biological pump is driven by the availability of preformed plant macronutrients such as nitrate or phosphate which are taken up by phytoplankton during photosynthetic carbon fixation. A small but significant proportion of this fixed carbon sinks into the ocean’s interior in the form of settling particles, and in order to maintain equilibrium carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is transferred across the air–sea interface into the ocean (the so-called carbon drawdown) thereby decreasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (Fig.5.1).Fig.5.1

This chapter, which has been modified slightly for the purposes of this volume, was originally published as part of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology edited by Robert A. Meyers. DOI:10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3

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Abbreviations

Carbon sequestration:

Is the removal of carbon by physical, chemical, and/or biological processes, and its long-term storage (i.e., decades to millennia) such that the carbon cannot return to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

Ocean fertilization:

Is the purposeful modification of the chemical characteristics of the surface ocean, by the addition of plant macronutrients including phosphate and/or iron, or the deployment of equipment such as ocean pipes to enhance the supply of nutrient rich deep water to surface waters. This fertilization has the potential to enhance upper ocean productivity, some of which may eventually settle into the ocean’s interior, thereby increasing carbon sequestration.

Global warming potential (GWP):

Provides a relative index between greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide or nitrous oxide, using their specific radiative properties to estimate the effect of anthropogenic emissions of each gas, over a specified time period relating to their atmospheric lifetime, on global climate.

Surface mixed layer:

Refers to the less dense layer of seawater in the upper ocean (10–200 m thick) that overlies more dense (i.e., colder and/or saltier) waters. This mixed layer is persistently stirred by upper ocean processes such as turbulence and wind mixing.

Free-drifting sediment traps:

Are devices deployed, usually in the upper 1 km of the ocean, designed to intercept settling particles that are the conduit of carbon sinking into the deep ocean as part of the biological pump.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, NIWA Centre for Chemical and Physical Oceanography, University of Otago, Dunedin, 9012, New Zealand

    Philip W. Boyd

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  1. Hatherly Laboratories, Biosciences College of Life and, University of Exeter, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter, EX4 4PS, United Kingdom

    Tim Lenton

  2. , School of Environmental Sciences, Univerity of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom

    Naomi Vaughan

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Boyd, P.W. (2013). Ocean Fertilization for Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere. In: Lenton, T., Vaughan, N. (eds) Geoengineering Responses to Climate Change. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5770-1_5

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