With 50 percentage of the Great Barrier Reef nowdead or dying , the acidification of the sea has become an unprecedented environmental catastrophe . As a likely solution , a team of Dutch scientists is seem at a mode to counteract the phenomenon .
Francesc Montserrat of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and his colleague are testing the habit of olivine , a Mg silicate mineral , to reduce the CO2 in saltwater into an innocuous bicarbonate ion .
In the research laboratory , they construct a 1 - m regular hexahedron ( 35 three-dimensional feet ) marine ecosystem contain hold up being , and they set the pH to the time value presently observe in the sea . The team drudge up olivine and give a 1.5 - centimetre ( 0.6 in ) layer on top of the natural sediment , and observed the seawater ’s pH increasing to acceptable floor without negatively affecting the aquatic life story .
“ We ’re trying to put some numbers on the board so that if politico decide that we need to do this in 10 to 15 years ’ time , the research is there and we can say , ‘ here are the problems you might be dealing with ’ , ” said Montserrat , as report byNew Scientist .
The result is definitely worth considering but geoengineering can not be taken lightly , and it is often check as a irregular patch rather than a long terminal figure resolution to human impact . The researchers themselves acknowledge that the process is very sensitive and far from foolproof .
When the team repeated the test with twice the amount of olivine , creating a 3 - centimeter ( 1.2 - inch ) layer , lugworms and the other sediment - dwelling organisms of a sudden died . It is not clear what exactly caused it , either toxic elements pollute the olivine or too great a change in pH.
ocean are now25 pct more acidicthan their pre - industrial revolution value , and this jeopardize the extinction of corals , shellfish , and mollusks . While both scientist and governments are very conservative about geoengineering , there ’s been a uprise interest in these technologies as extreme curative in case unforeseeable problem occur .
[ H / T : New Scientist ]
