Swarming by millions in ‘hot spots’ and also dying by millions like salps, Pyrosoma atlanticum may be transporting tons of carbon per year from the ocean surface to the deep sea. Read more here.
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About Me
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
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P. atlanticum isn’t the only biological candidate for long-term sequestration of carbon. At considerable expense, we could genetically engineer MIRROR IMAGE versions of relatively fast-growing trees, like cottonwoods. The Mirror-Image Trees would have L-sugars and D-amino acids, the opposite of normal Earthly life-forms. (OK, glycine isn’t optically active.) The beasties that normally feed on the trees would get no usable carbohydrates from the wood of the MITs that they tried to consumed. In the absence of fire, the carbon in the organic matter produced by the MITs would never reach the atmosphere. So here’s the plan.
When a crop of MITs reaches full size, chop them down, and run everything through wood-chippers. Whenever an open-pit mine peters out, fill the big hole in the ground with a mixture of dirt, sand, and MIT chips, and then cover it over with a layer of dirt, sand, and gravel. Bye-bye eyesore and bye-bye nasty old carbon! 😛