Hi All After studying Diatoms for past 3 years, I have listed a few questions for which I could not find answers on the internet. Would appreciate any help in finding answers.
1. What portion of the estimated 38000 billion tons of carbon sequestered in the oceans is due to biological processes (phytoplankton, zooplankton, fish, etc) in the oceans and what portion is due to chemical processes (calcium carbonate due to chemical reactions, etc)? 2. Of the total amount sequestered due to biological processes how much is due to dead phytoplankton falling to the ocean floor, how much is due to zooplankton, how much is due to fish, whales, etc? 3. Of the amount sequestered by dead phytoplankton falling to the ocean floor how is due to each group of phytoplankton, Diatoms, Cyanobacteria, Green Algae, Dinoflagellates, Coccolithophores, etc? 4. Has the amount of carbon sequestered in oceans increased or decreased over the past few decades and centuries? 5. Is the amount of carbon sequestered each year in the oceans increasing or decreasing, i.e., are they now acting as sinks or are they releasing CO2? 6. Does Ocean acidification indicate that carbon earlier sequestered in the depths of the ocean is now being released to the surface? 7. What is the projection for the future for carbon sequestration in oceans - without human intervention (business as usual scenario)? 8. Has fish biomass declined in the past few hundred years since Industrial Revolution (perhaps from 8 to 14 billion tons 200 years ago to 0.8 to 2 billion tons at present)? Whales have certainly been decimated in the 19th and 20th century. 9. How has the decline in the fish biomass impacted carbon sequestration? 10 How has the decline in whale population in the 19th and 20th centuries impacted Diatom biomass? 11 Has the decline in whales caused a slow down of recycling of iron and other micro nutrients ? 12 Has Diatom biomass of the oceans increased or decreased in the past few decades / centuries? 13 Why have the number of Dead Zones increased to over 400 over the past 50 years? 14 Why are cyanobacteria blooms causing dead zones in coastal waters? 15 Are Dead zones Carbon exporting zones, they are HNHC area - why are they dead inspite of high level of chlorophyll? 16 Eutrophic lakes are also HNHC areas, why are they viewed with concern? Why is the dissolved oxygen level of eutrophic lakes low inspite of High Chlorophyll? Why do fish kills take place in eutrophic water, inspite of or perhaps because of phytoplankton abundance? 17 Should a Ocean Fertilization product be first tested in inland waterways and coastal waterways to prevent eutrophication and dead zone problem, before being used in deep sea. Sites such as these do not give much details. http://genomicscience.energy.gov/carboncycle/index.shtml#page=news regards Bhaskar -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en.
