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Quoting David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com>:
> I gather from your comments about 'iron fertilization' that
> another trial has run into opposition. Unfortunate if true.
>
> Certainly trying to unscramble the real effects of a broadcast
> application in the open ocean is problematic but the remedy is to
> devise approaches that are amenable to statistical test and refine
> methods on the basis of results as opposed to debate-- e.g. how many
> phytoplankton can grow on the head of an iron pin anyway ?).
* here's the NY Times account -
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/science/earth/iron-dumping-experiment-in-pacific-alarms-marine-experts.html?_r=2&emc=eta1& - and some sleuthing of details - http://watershedsentinel.ca/content/new-evidence-re-old-masset-iron-fertilization-scheme - and the CBC - http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/10/19/bc-ocean-fertilization-haida.html everybody seems to be dissing this because none of their friends were part of the scientific
staff.
It seems to me that if what iron fertilization needed was larger scale
experiments, then the thing to do is to wait for the experimenters'
report on this project, and if that proves to be inadequate, infer
what it's possible to infer from this 100 tonne event, and then see
how to do, and fund, a better-controlled experiment. There's great
howling against geoengineering, but if we've geomodified the Earth by
burning up forests and fossil fuels, then we've got to find out what
to do to counteract this or go back to the late Permian/early Triassic
condition of 40C equatorial ocean waters, and 50C equatorial lands.
fred.
================================================================
>
> Why not e.g. enclose test areas with a polyethylene curtain
> around the perimeter, let them drift, sample fallout at intervals
> and naturally sample phytoplankton and water composition in the
> upper enclosed layers. One could then have real control and test
> plots replicated as necessary based on accumulating experience. With
> beacons to locate scattered plots and automated sampling/recording,
> a mother ship (or more as necessary) could service sufficient plots
> over time to obtain data amenable to statistical tests.
>
> Iron has been entering the ocean, mostly as dust or eroded
> fines, since the dawn of time and, if I recall correctly, areas with
> high natural addition rates are unusually productive.
>
> The high productivity of the Bay of Fundy is often attributed to
> deep mixing of nutrients but is iron perhaps one of these or even
> the key nutrient ? Fine soil (iron rich) gets swept down the Bay
> with every falling tide.
>
> Which is worse, the potential to make a few mistakes in small
> areas of ocean or the really large mistake associated with
> contributing to permafrost melt, release of methane from methyl
> hydrate, massive positive feedback and runaway global warming ?
>
> Yt, Dave Webster, Kentville
------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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