9月26日美國麻州伍茲爾霍海洋研究所的科學家們舉辦一個2天的國際跨領域研討會，在會中討論「利用海洋投放鐵肥以對抗增加中的空氣溫室氣體」的提案。
上世紀一些科學家及環境工程師曾多次提出類似的想法，也就是將溶解性的鐵質漿狀物投灑到海洋中，以增加海水的養份，促使海洋浮游植物（phytoplankton）大量增生。
由於浮游植物生長時會攝取二氧化碳，他們的想法是在某些海洋深谷，透過增加浮游植物生長所需的鐵質微量養分，刺激它們增生。
雖然這在陸地上已經是很普遍的作法，但是在海洋投放溶解性的鐵還不常見。有一些研究者及營利者已經表示可大量提供這種海洋缺乏的養分，以人為的方式產生大量增生。
有些科學家表示，如果浮游植物的增生規模夠大，它們的確可以從地球的大氣層中移除過多的二氧化碳，並且將它們帶到深海中成為有機物聚積層，減少溫室氣體及全球暖化的衝擊。
但是，伍茲爾霍海洋研究所一位資深的海洋化學與地球化學科學家布伊謝勒（Ken Buesseler）表示：「在投放鐵質肥料的方式能夠被證實是有效的或是適當的之前，還要考量很多關鍵問題，也就是需要累積更多科學上的證據，並且也要有更好的法律、經濟與政治層面的執行架構」。布伊謝勒本身也參與了2項海洋鐵鹽施肥的試驗。他指出：「現在是將科學家、政策制訂者、營利者聚集在一起進行意見交流，並且將資訊傳達給一般大眾的時候了」。
On Wednesday, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI, will open a two day international, interdisciplinary conference on the proposed "iron fertilization" of the ocean as a means to combat rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Several times over the past century, scientists and environmental engineers have proposed spreading slurries of dissolved iron into the oceans in order to "fertilize" the waters and promote vast blooms of marine plants called phytoplankton.
Phytoplankton consume carbon dioxide as they grow, and this growth can be stimulated in certain ocean basins by the addition of iron, a necessary micronutrient.
Though common on land, dissolved iron is often rare in the ocean. Some researchers and commercial interests have proposed to provide that missing nutrient on a large scale in order to create artificial blooms.
Some scientists say that if such blooms grow large enough, they could remove excess carbon dioxide from Earth's atmosphere and carry it down into the deep ocean as organic matter sinks, reducing the impact of greenhouse gases and global warming.
"There are many critical questions that require both better scientific understanding and an improved legal, economic, and political framework before iron fertilization can be considered either effective or appropriate," said Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist in WHOI's Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department and a participant in two iron fertilization experiments at sea. "The time is right to bring scientists, policymakers, and commercial interests together to inform each other and the public."
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