CSIRO finds CO2-chomping microbes battling for ocean iron

7:23 AM Mon 24 Jan 2011 GMT
CSIRO Australian, Belgian and New Zealand scientists have expanded our understanding of the way phyoplankton take up scarce iron in the ocean ? a process that regulates ocean food chains from the bottom up and helps remove up to 40 per cent of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. Research published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science explores the relationship between iron, which limits primary productivity in vast regions of the ocean, and its uptake by phytoplankton species. It has identified how natural organic compounds in the Southern Ocean can control iron availability to phytoplankton in ...

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by CSIRO