Influence of ocean alkalinity enhancement with olivine or steel slag on a coastal plankton community in Tasmania

Abstract

Abstract. Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) aims to increase atmospheric CO2 sequestration in the oceans through the acceleration of chemical rock weathering. This could be achieved by grinding rocks containing alkaline minerals and adding the rock powder to the surface ocean where it dissolves and chemically locks CO2 in seawater as bicarbonate. However, CO2 sequestration during dissolution coincides with the release of potentially bioactive chemicals and may induce side effects. Here, we used 53 L microcosms to test how coastal plankton communities from Tasmania respond to OAE with olivine (mainly Mg2SiO4) or steel slag (mainly CaO and Ca(OH)2) as alkalinity sources. Three microcosms were left unperturbed and served as a control, three were enriched with olivine powder (1.9 g L−1), and three were enriched with steel slag powder (0.038 g L−1). Olivine and steel slag powders were of similar grain size. Olivine was added in a higher amount than the steel slag with the aim of compensating for the lower efficiency of olivine to deliver alkalinity over the 3-week experiment. Phytoplankton and zooplankton community responses as well as some biogeochemical parameters were monitored. Olivine and steel slag additions increased total alkalinity by 29 and 361 µmol kg−1, respectively, corresponding to a respective theoretical increase of 0.9 % and 14.8 % of the seawater storage capacity for atmospheric CO2. Olivine and steel slag released silicate nutrients into the seawater, but steel slag released considerably more and also significant amounts of phosphate. After 21 d, no significant difference was found in dissolved iron concentrations (>100 nmol L−1) in the treatments and the control. The slag addition increased dissolved manganese concentrations (771 nmol L−1), while olivine increased dissolved nickel concentrations (37 nmol L−1). There was no significant difference in total chlorophyll-a concentrations between the treatments and the control, likely due to nitrogen limitation of the phytoplankton community. However, flow cytometry results indicated an increase in the cellular abundance of several smaller (∼<20 µm) phytoplankton groups in the olivine treatment. The abundance of larger phytoplankton (∼>20 µm) decreased much more in the control than in the treatments after day 10. Furthermore, the maximum quantum yields of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) were higher in slag and olivine treatments, suggesting that mineral additions increased photosynthetic performance. The zooplankton community composition was also affected, with the most notable changes being observed in the dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans and the appendicularian Oikopleura sp. in the olivine treatment. Overall, the steel slag used here was more efficient for CO2 removal with OAE than the olivine over the 3-week timescale of the experiment. Furthermore, the steel slag appeared to induce less change in the plankton community than the olivine when comparing the CO2 removal potential of both minerals with the level of environmental impact that they caused.