Science - Sealed, Delivered.

Ocean Fertilization Experiment Underway, Under Scrutiny

Fri Jan 23 2009

Quite a bit of recent controversy over this one:

Rogue German Ship Fertilizing Southern Ocean

German and Indian scientists are hoping the experiment will show that such man made algae blooms can provide a quick fix to climate change by absorbing carbon into the sea.
[..]
The experiment breaches the global moratorium on ocean fertilization activities recently agreed under the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity.

Want to hear several views? Me too. Here’s an alternate link as well as the expedition’s homepage so you can get several takes.

This experiment sets the stage for interesting legal, political and scientific precedents to be set. I know I’ll be following it closely.

Arguments against eutrophication of the oceans aside (which may very well be valid), It’s still unclear to me whether these iron-fed blooms actually lead to the sort of CO2 settling and sequestering their proponents assume. You can follow the ship’s course here. The ship is called the RV (Research Vessel) Polarstern.

Fertilizer-Fed Fisheries

Thu Jan 22 2009

BBC News has an interesting story up discussing a study which found that fertilizers and sewage discharges entering the Nile delta have boosted fish stocks in Mediterranean coastal waters nearby.

From the article:

A team of researchers found that the dramatic increase in fish populations coincided with a sharp rise in the amount of fertilisers used by farmers. At least 60% of the area’s fishery production is supported by the run-off entering the Nile’s water, they added. […]

[Read More…]

Linked:

Thu Jan 22 2009

The all-new Whitehouse.gov: Technology Agenda

Make Math and Science Education a National Priority: Recruit math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession and support efforts to help these teachers learn from professionals in the field. Work to ensure that all children have access to a strong science curriculum at all grade levels. […]

Increase Science and Math Graduates: Improve science and math education in K through 12 to prepare more students for these studies in college. Work to increase our number of science and engineering graduates and encourage undergraduates studying math and science to pursue graduate studies. Increase the representation of minorities and women in the science and technology pipeline, tapping the diversity of America to meet the increasing demand for a skilled workforce.

BioDiversity of Marine Planktonic Diatoms

Tue Jan 20 2009

An interesting paper is available right now over at Nature on the evolution, over millions of years, of diversity in diatoms, which are ‘the dominant group of phytoplankton in the modern ocean’. The diversity of these diatoms increased rapidly from a period between about 25-35 million years ago, and has since declined. The authors of the paper test the theory that geochemical coupling with grasslands and/or competitive displacement of other phytoplankton lines explain the rapid increase:

These reconstructions of marine phytoplankton diversity reject the prominent role for direct and indirect biotic interactions discussed in recent studies. The most striking features of diatom diversity through time are unrelated to both grassland expansion and interspecific competition with coccolithophorids.

[Read More…]

Quoted: Inauguration day edition

Tue Jan 20 2009

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

- Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America (1861-1865)