How Do We Know That OIF Will Remove Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide?
The reason to engage in OIF is to facilitate the drawdown of atmospheric CO2. There are two aspects of atmospheric carbon dioxide removal. The first component is carbon uptake into organic carbon as a response to the triggered phytoplankton bloom. This causes the surface ocean to become depleted in inorganic carbon. According to Henry?s Law of Partial Pressures, atmospheric carbon dioxide will equilibrate with the surface ocean resulting in CO2 uptake by the ocean. The second component is the sequestration of a portion of the phytoplankton organic carbon to deeper waters where it cannot re-equilibrate with the atmosphere. The fact that organic carbon can be removed from the surface ocean by OIF has been conclusively demonstrated by both artificial experiments, such as the EIFEX experiment which observed high rates of sequestration with up to 50% of the bloom biomass sinking below 1000m depth [Smetacek et al., Submitted], and by observations of natural blooms [Blain et al., 2007]. Recen
