Hungry Crustaceans Eat Climate Change Experiment

Slashdot ^ | March 26, 2009

[Lorianne]

Earlier this month, an expedition fertilized 300 square kilometers of the Atlantic Ocean with six metric tons of dissolved iron. This triggered a bloom of phytoplankton, which doubled their biomass within two weeks by taking in carbon dioxide from the seawater. The dead phytoplankton were then expected to sink to the ocean bed, dragging carbon along with them. Instead they experiment turned into an example of how the food chain works as the bloom was eaten by a swarm of hungry copepods. The huge swarm of copepods were in turn eaten by larger crustaceans called amphipods, which are often eaten by squid and whales. "I think we are seeing the last gasps of ocean iron fertilization as a carbon storage strategy," says Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University. While the experiment failed to show ocean fertilization as a viable carbon storage strategy, it has pushed the old "My dog ate my homework" excuse to an unprecedented level.

[NonValueAdded]

but wasn’t the carbon stored? perhaps not in the body they expected it to be in, but so what? Isn’t this success staring them right in the face? Isn’t Ted Danson dancing a jig (sorry, Whoopie) for the revitalization of the ocean possibilities?

[mickey finn]

Joe, did’nt your Mother tell you not to play with your food?

[JoeProBono]

[P.O.E.]

Big fleas have little fleas
upon their backs to bite ‘em.
Those fleas have still smaller fleas
and so ad infinitum.

[rmlew]

This may be an unintended result, but it does not destroy the findings. Rather it shows that carbon would be spread through out the food chain.

[patton]

Oh, I don’t know. The very first lesson I learned at scientist school was how to say “Canis edit.”

(Latin - the dog ate my homework)

[Donaeus]

More proof that God indeed has a sense of humor!

[smokingfrog]

A Biological Option: Seeding the Oceans with Iron

“Give me a half tanker of iron, and I will give you an ice age”. This was the inflammatory words from the American oceanographer John Martin who, for the first time in the early 90’s, establishing the iron hypothesis and proposed a way to artificially increase the oceans absorption of the carbon dioxide released by the burning of fossil fuels. Martin noticed that large areas of the ocean were almost devoid of phytoplankton despite the presence of large amount of nutrients required for their growth. He further determined that those “paradoxical zones” were indeed lacking iron, a micro-nutrient essential for life. Martin’s theory was that iron fertilization of the surface ocean will stimulate phytoplankton growth and take in so much carbon from the atmosphere that it could reverse the greenhouse effect and cool the Earth.

[jiggyboy]

none taken

[Publius6961]

The dead phytoplankton were then expected to sink to the ocean bed, dragging carbon along with them. Instead they experiment turned into an example of how the food chain works as the bloom was eaten by a swarm of hungry copepods. The huge swarm of copepods were in turn eaten by larger crustaceans called amphipods, which are often eaten by squid and whales.

Wait a minute.
Missing information here.
Was the CO2 sequestered or not? Isn't that the bottom line?

This turn of events never occured to these incompetent "scientists?"

Gheeez.
Tree experts playing the role of forest custodians.

[steelyourfaith]

I suspect the copepods computer models will need tweaking again.

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[SunkenCiv]

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[xcamel]

FReepmail me to get on or off

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---

Karma... again.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

There is something wrong with this?

They got rid of the carbon.

[Fiddlstix]

Hey, This is good.....
I like crustaceans.......
They're good......
Yum.....

[rdl6989]

Rotflmao!

[Kenny Bunk]

excess CO_2 is a trailing indicator of global temperature, as we now see clearly these last ten years.

This has been demonstrated beyond doubt. How come we are spending trillions now to "control Carbon and CO2?" We are sacrificing the world's economy and common sense to pseudo-science.

[Kenny Bunk]

When Zebra mussels invaded the Great Lakes, "environmentalists" shook with righteous indignation and would have gladly drained Lake Erie and stomped every last 1.

Instead, 2 decades later, the Zebra Mussel has cleaned up the lake's waters by filtration, become a food source for a nearly extinct commercial fish, the sheephead, which is back in huge numbers, the lake is a steelhead fishery (another imported species), and the Zebra Mussel is still a major PIA in water intakes.

But sadly, Lake Erie isn't "PRISTINE."

[The_Reader_David]

How come we are spending trillions now to "control Carbon and CO2?"

We're not, we're spending trillions to grant control of the economy to socialists, who have used anti-'Carbon' propaganda as a way to get the sheeple to sign on to the project.

[Publius6961]

Road-to-hell BUMP!