Why oceanic sequestration?
Many of the proposed plans to reduce atmospheric levels of CO2 revolve around the idea of boosting primary production in the oceans—of priming the “biological pump,” as it’s called. Currently, the oceans absorb about half of the carbon dioxide we emit each year. Yet, in many areas, primary production is limited by the low availability of vital nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and iron. (Carbon dioxide is so plentiful that it is rarely the limiting factor.) Some scientists think that an effective strategy to amplify carbon sequestration in these locations would be to shower them with more nutrients, thus enabling phytoplankton and other photosynthesizers to take advantage of the surplus CO2. That would increase the amount of organic, carbon-rich matter that sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Andrew Yool, a researcher at the National Oceanography Center in Southampton, UK, wondered how well such a scheme might work. He and his colleagues were specifically interested in modeling the imp
