Comments on: seaweed, ftw? http://www.wordsend.org/2007/12/10/seaweed-ftw/ searching for the ineffable Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:52:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Ethan Fremen http://www.wordsend.org/2007/12/10/seaweed-ftw/comment-page-1/#comment-671 Ethan Fremen Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:07:04 +0000 http://wordsend.org/archives/2007/12/10/seaweed-ftw/#comment-671 If you absorb CO2 into biomass that you then feed to people or other animals, that biomass is mostly converted back into CO2. A small amount of it is retained, but that usually gets converted into CO2 once whatever it is dies. So if you want to really sequester the carbon you would have to bury the seaweed or quickly sink it to the bottom of the ocean, where it would take hundreds of years to make it back up to the surface, if it ever did. As to the CO2 absorption capacity of the ocean, the latest information I have seen suggests that the capacity does scale with the quantity of CO2, but it also increases the net rate of respiration so it doesn't make much of a difference in the net CO2 level in the atmosphere. If you absorb CO2 into biomass that you then feed to people or other animals, that biomass is mostly converted back into CO2. A small amount of it is retained, but that usually gets converted into CO2 once whatever it is dies.

So if you want to really sequester the carbon you would have to bury the seaweed or quickly sink it to the bottom of the ocean, where it would take hundreds of years to make it back up to the surface, if it ever did.

As to the CO2 absorption capacity of the ocean, the latest information I have seen suggests that the capacity does scale with the quantity of CO2, but it also increases the net rate of respiration so it doesn’t make much of a difference in the net CO2 level in the atmosphere.

]]> By: DM http://www.wordsend.org/2007/12/10/seaweed-ftw/comment-page-1/#comment-672 DM Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:41:18 +0000 http://wordsend.org/archives/2007/12/10/seaweed-ftw/#comment-672 Interesting idea. Recently there was a study showing that the ocean was maxing out on the amount of CO2 it was capable of absorbing, only now I can't find the study, so I have no idea if I'm misremembering it or not.... Interesting idea. Recently there was a study showing that the ocean was maxing out on the amount of CO2 it was capable of absorbing, only now I can’t find the study, so I have no idea if I’m misremembering it or not….

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