Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)


Print Feedback Export to File
3330621 
Journal Article 
Climate engineering by artificial ocean upwelling: Channelling the sorcerer's apprentice 
Oschlies, A; Pahlow, M; Yool, A; Matear, RJ 
2010 
Yes 
Geophysical Research Letters
ISSN: 0094-8276
EISSN: 1944-8007 
37 
Recent suggestions to reduce the accumulation of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have included ocean fertilization by artificial upwelling. Our coupled carbon-climate model simulations suggest that artificial upwelling may, under most optimistic assumptions, be able to sequester atmospheric CO(2) at a rate of about 0.9 PgC/yr. However, the model predicts that about 80% of the carbon sequestered is stored on land, as a result of reduced respiration at lower air temperatures brought about by upwelling of cold waters. This remote and distributed carbon sequestration would make monitoring and verification particularly challenging. A second caveat predicted by our simulations is that whenever artificial upwelling is stopped, simulated surface temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentrations rise quickly and for decades to centuries to levels even somewhat higher than experienced in a world that never engaged in artificial upwelling. Citation: Oschlies, A., M. Pahlow, A. Yool, and R. J. Matear (2010), Climate engineering by artificial ocean upwelling: Channelling the sorcerer's apprentice, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L04701, doi:10.1029/2009GL041961.