Fertilising the oceans with iron to absorb carbon dioxide could increase concentrations of a chemical that can kill marine mammals, a study has found.
Iron stimulates growth of marine algae that absorb CO2 from the air, and has been touted as a “climate fix”.
Now researchers have shown that the algae increase production of a nerve poison that can kill mammals and birds.
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they say this raises “serious concern” over the idea.
The toxin – domoic acid – first came to notice in the late 1980s as the cause of amnesiac shellfish poisoning.
It is produced by algae of the genus Pseudonitzschia, with concentrations rising rapidly when the algae “bloom”.
Now, its presence in seawater often requires the suspension of shellfishing operations, and is regularly implicated in deaths of animals such as sealions.
Domoic acid poisoning may also lie behind a 1961 incident in which flocks of seabirds appeared to attack the Californian town of Capitola – an event believed to have shaped Alfred Hitchcock’s interpretation of Daphne du Maurier’s The Birds in his 1963 thriller.
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The AGW cure is far worse than the disease (if there even is one)……again.
And if they are completely wrong about AGW they might trigger Global Cooling and an Ice Age as well as risk poisoning the oceans !
As anyone who lives on the prairies knows, large concentrations of algae on sloughs and lakes causes the death of water fowl and fish. Why couldn’t the same be true with ocean algae? Of course that would be OK in the name of climate control, just as it is with wind turbines killing birds.
Another solution in search of a problem.
Experiment Time! Let’s start at Quadra Island when the Suzuki is home.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Fire the activists that work for Universities and government, and cut their budgets appropriately.