Gaia and our lack of knowledge...

A very brilliant and talented Doctor once said to me about Global Warming.

"There are so many factors, so many Earth/Nature systems that have not been awakened in this, that prediction of what will happen is too variable."

He was not dissing Global Warming but explaining the uncertainty of what will actually happen, will Gaia react, and how?"

This story reminded me of his prediction.

Giant melting icebergs could be slowing climate change by absorbing carbon: researchers.

 By Bridget Brennan

Scientists have made the surprising discovery that giant melting icebergs could actually be slowing global warming.

 

Satellite images show that as giant icebergs melt, they leave behind trails of nutrients.

The nutrients stimulate growth of marine life, which leads to million of tonnes of carbon being taken from the atmosphere.

It is a process known as 'ocean fertilisation'.

Professor Grant Bigg, an expert in oceanography from the University of Sheffield, was part of the research team that analysed satellite images of about 17 giant icebergs in the Southern Ocean.

"It was a big surprise," he said.

"When you look at the giant icebergs, the influence of these meltwater nutrients is actually four to 10 times as large as we would have expected from looking at the ordinary sized icebergs."

Rising sea levels still a 'major worry'

Giant icebergs are at least 18 kilometres long, and their nutrient-rich plume can reach for up to 1,000 kilometres.

The research team found that the giant icebergs absorbed around 10-40 million tonnes of carbon a year by generating floating environments.

That promotes the growth of algae and other tiny organisms which can extract carbon from the atmosphere.

"We estimated that somewhere between 5 and 10 per cent of all the carbon, which is exported from the surface waters of the Southern Ocean down to the deep ocean, ought to come from these iceberg plumes fertilising the water and the phytoplankton growing and dying as a result."

Professor Bigg said there was likely to be an increase in ocean fertilisation as more ice melted in Antarctica.

But while that might have an impact on greenhouse gas emissions, it will do nothing to slow sea level rise.

"That's one of the major worries," he said.

"The icebergs themselves when they're out in the open ocean probably have this relatively good effect. But the freshwater also will change the ocean currents … and that could have an impact on the way the Southern Ocean works."