Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
technology of maintaining the nature
s overall
ecological balance, an issue of top priority of
environmental awareness and public policy.
Bioremediation is the alliance of a biological
system and an engineering system for the reme-
diation of undesirable chemical pollution. The
objective of bioremediation is to exploit naturally
occurring biodegradative processes for clean-up
of the polluted environments.
One of the prime objectives of this chapter is
to analyse in detail the storage capacity of carbon
by phytoplankton due to iron fertilization in
oceans and brackishwater bodies and whether the
process can be considered under the bioremedi-
ation vertical.
The
'
conducted the experiments on iron fertilization in
ocean also reported an almost instantaneous
change in the colour of the ocean water.
Twelve experiments so far carried out by
researchers on the regulatory role of adding iron
on marine and estuarine phytoplankton have not
critically addressed the questions of how much
carbon dioxide taken up by a bloom is drawn out
of the air and transferred into the deep sea and
how long it remains sequestered there. Four
experiments took place in the northwest Paci
c,
two experiments were in the equatorial Paci
c,
and six experiments were conducted in the
Southern Ocean (Fig.
5.11
). All these twelve
experiments reported up to 15-fold increases in
the chlorophyll content of surface waters.
Iron is basically an essential trace element for
phytoplankton as it is necessary for a number of
cellular functions including the synthesis of
chlorophyll. The recent research on iron fertil-
ization put forward the concept that phyto-
plankton growth can be stimulated by adding
iron to high-nitrate low-chlorophyll (HNLC)
waters. Many scientists also forwarded the view
that the ef
of
advanced science and technology and its appli-
cations in various spheres of life. In this age of
satellites, it is not very dif
twenty-
rst
century is
the
era
cult to answer the
basic question that whether adding iron to the
ocean can trigger the phytoplankton bloom.
When storms over land transfer iron-rich dust
into the sea, satellite images show marbled
swaths of green phytoplankton spinning across
waters. Those regions were previously blue and
barren. Satellites also exhibit plankton blooms
near the Gal
ciency of this biological pump can be
enhanced by fertilizing the oceans with iron.
Increased ef
pagos and other islands where iron-
rich deep-waters naturally well up to surface.
Even phytoplankton blooms spurred by experi-
mental additions of iron to the ocean can be
detected by satellites. Marine scientists who
รก
ciency means sucking up more
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the
oceans. This can be an effective road map to
mitigate climate change due to rise of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere. However,
such
Fig. 5.11
Locations of twelve small-scale experiments over the past decade in several oceans of the world
