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Pollution Can Convert Airborne Iron Into Soluble Form Required for Phytoplankton Growth
Georgia, - A surprising link may exist between ocean fertility and air pollution over land, according to Georgia Institute of Technology research reported in the Feb. 16 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres. The work provides new insight into the role that ocean fertility plays in the complex cycle involving carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in global warming.
When dust storms pass over industrialized areas, they can pick up sulfur dioxide, an acidic trace gas emitted from industrial facilities and power plants. As the dust storms move out over the ocean, the sulfur dioxide they carry lowers the pH (a measure of acidity and alkalinity) level of dust and transforms iron into a soluble form, said Nicholas Meskhidze, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Athanasios Nenes' group at Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and lead author of the paper "Dust and Pollution: A Recipe for Enhanced Ocean Fertilization."
This conversion is important because dissolved iron is a necessary micronutrient for phytoplankton - tiny aquatic plants that serve as food for fish and other marine organisms, and also reduce carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere via photosynthesis. Phytoplankton carry out almost half of Earth's photosynthesis even though they represent less than 1 percent of the planet's biomass.