Legal and political aspects of iron fertilisation in the Southern Ocean: implications of Australian involvement

摘要

CO_2 sequestration in the deep oceans is a natural process and the Southern Ocean is the world's major atmospheric CO_2 reservoir. Recently, small-scale open-ocean iron fertilisation experiments were conducted in selected high nutrient low chlorophyll-a (HNLC) areas to verify the 'iron hypothesis'. In the process, it was discovered that there might be a potentially beneficial dual application for iron fertilisation. The research found that fertilisation enhanced the natural sequestration process bypromoting phytoplankton biomass - one critical component of the biological pump which intrinsically draws down atmospheric CO_2 to the deep ocean during the photosynthetic process. In addition, it was thought that the resulting phytoplankton bloom might, under optimum circumstances, increase oceanic biological productivity by proving a richer food source throughout all trophic levels. However, the science should be treated with caution because it is new, complex and also to a certain degree contentious. Neither its efficacy nor its consequences regarding CO_2 sequestration or enhanced productivity are well understood.