Melting Icebergs Fertilize Ocean
Efforts to remove climate-warming carbon dioxide from Earth's atmosphere
appear to be getting a helping hand from a surprising source: the iron
in meltwater from Antarctic icebergs.
Icebergs calving off of Antarctica are shedding substantial iron--the
equivalent of a growth-boosting vitamin--into waters starved of the
mineral, a new set of studies demonstrates. This iron is fertilizing the
growth of microscopic plants and algae, transforming the waters adjacent
to ice floes into teeming communities of everything from tiny shrimplike
krill to fish, birds and sometimes mammals.
To grow, these plants and animals use carbon drawn into the water from
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Some share of this carbon will
eventually be excreted as wastes that fall to the ocean floor,
essentially removing it as a near-term climate risk.
Read more:
http://ow.ly/4Wo4I
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