Appropriate Location and Deployment Method for Successful Iron Fertilization

Abstract

“High nutrient, low chlorophyll (HNLC)” regions were created by locking iron into sedimentary iron sulfides with hydrogen sulfide available from volcanic eruptions in surrounding oceans. Appropriate locations and deployment methods for the iron fertilization were far from volcanoes, earthquakes and boundaries of tectonic plates to reduce the chance of iron-locking by volcanic sulfur compounds. The appropriate locations for the large-scale iron fertilization are proposed as Shag Rocks in South Georgia and the Bransfield Strait in Drake Passage in the Southern Ocean due to their high momentum flux causing efficient iron deployment. The iron (Fe) replete compounds, consisting of natural clay, volcanic ash, agar, N2-fixing mucilaginous cyanobacteria, carbon black, biodegradable plastic foamed polylactic acid, fine wood chip, and iron-reducing marine bacterium, are deployed in the ocean to stay within a surface depth of 100 m for phytoplankton digestion. The deployment method of Fe-replete composite with a duration of at least several years for the successful iron fertilization, is configured to be on the streamline of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). This will result in high momentum flux for its efficient dispersion on the ocean surface where diatom, copepods, krill and humpback whale stay together (~100 m). Humpback whales are proposed as a biomarker for the successful iron fertilization in large-scale since humpback whales feed on krill, which in turn feed on cockpods and diatoms. The successful large-scale iron fertilization may be indicated by the return of the humpback whales if they could not be found for a long period before the iron fertilization. On-line monitoring for the successful iron fertilization focuses on the simultaneous changes of the following two groups; the increase concentration group (chlorophyll, O2, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Di Methyl Sulfide (DMS)) and the decrease concentration group (nitrate, phosphate, silicate, CO2, Dissolved CO2 (DCO2)). The monitoring of chlorophyll-a, nitrate phosphate, and silicate concentrations after deploying the Fe-replete complex is carried out throughout the day and night for the accurate measurement of algal blooms.