Clay-Carbon flocs (IMAGE)
Caption
The researchers' method would spray clay dust on large blooms of microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton, which can cover hundreds of square miles and remove 150 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. But most of that carbon re-enters the atmosphere when the plants die. The researchers' method diverts free-floating carbon into the marine food chain in the form of tiny sticky balls of clay and organic carbon called flocs (pictured) that are consumed by zooplankton or sink to deeper water.
Credit
Mukul Sharma
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