Well, there are some concerns we definitely need to address. When you make phytoplankton you almost certainly increase oxygen consumption in the water column — zooplankton eat the phytoplankton and that process takes oxygen. If you don't do it right, you could end up deoxygenating the whole water column. And there are questions about "nutrient robbing": there's a chance that if you add nutrients to one patch of ocean, that then allows phytoplankton to develop right there, using up the other nutrients in the water, which then deprives other patches of ocean from those nutrients. I think this applies more to GOFOIF than to the newer methods, but we're well aware of them.
Big picture, yes! I do think this will help biodiversity. And fisheries. And whales. But we need to prove all that. Ocean Visions has a system for doing so.
Thank you, I appreciate the fact that you gave me a response, and I don’t wanna take any more of your time. I am left with a bunch of more questions about how plankton works, but I don’t expect you to get into that. I’ll try to take the time too. Go down the rabbit hole and find out how plankton consumes oxygen, and or why.
Thanks again, I’ll take it from here. Answering questions, always leads to more questions, and sometimes we just need to do the hard work for ourselves.
Exciting. And the numbers really seem trivial for the early stages.
I’m still wondering what the worst case scenario is?
If a plankton does not sink to the bottom, is that really a problem?
Isn’t it just making food to help biodiversity?
Well, there are some concerns we definitely need to address. When you make phytoplankton you almost certainly increase oxygen consumption in the water column — zooplankton eat the phytoplankton and that process takes oxygen. If you don't do it right, you could end up deoxygenating the whole water column. And there are questions about "nutrient robbing": there's a chance that if you add nutrients to one patch of ocean, that then allows phytoplankton to develop right there, using up the other nutrients in the water, which then deprives other patches of ocean from those nutrients. I think this applies more to GOFOIF than to the newer methods, but we're well aware of them.
Big picture, yes! I do think this will help biodiversity. And fisheries. And whales. But we need to prove all that. Ocean Visions has a system for doing so.
Thank you, I appreciate the fact that you gave me a response, and I don’t wanna take any more of your time. I am left with a bunch of more questions about how plankton works, but I don’t expect you to get into that. I’ll try to take the time too. Go down the rabbit hole and find out how plankton consumes oxygen, and or why.
Thanks again, I’ll take it from here. Answering questions, always leads to more questions, and sometimes we just need to do the hard work for ourselves.
Very heartening analysis. Thank you, Quico!