Climate 'fix' could poison sea life
Posted: 16 Mar 2010, 06:19
BBC News - 16/03/10
Fertilising the oceans with iron to absorb carbon dioxide could increase concentrations of a chemical that can kill marine mammals, a study has found.
Iron stimulates growth of marine algae that absorb CO2 from the air, and has been touted as a "climate fix".
Now researchers have shown that the algae increase production of a nerve poison that can kill mammals and birds.
Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they say this raises "serious concern" over the idea.
The toxin - domoic acid - first came to notice in the late 1980s as the cause of amnesiac shellfish poisoning.
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