Nutrients Dropped In Ocean From Amazon's Outflow Key To Marine Carbon Uptake - AFP

[hatrack]

CHICAGO (AFP) — Nutrients carried by the Amazon River help create a carbon sink deep in the Atlantic Ocean, a study released Monday has found.

The key ingredients transported by the river are iron and phosphorus. These elements are all that an organism called a diazotroph needs to capture nitrogen and carbon from the air and transform them into organic solids that then sink to the ocean floor.

Researchers from the United States, Greece and England found that the Amazon carries these elements hundreds of kilometers into the ocean and has an impact on the carbon and nitrogen cycles much farther afield than previously thought.

It is likely that other rivers also help seed carbon sequestering in the world's oceans, wrote senior author Doug Capone of the University of Southern California.

EDIT

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i6iouPXXHhRNPU1U3gL8SaUCYs-w

[Hydra]

1. Nature creates a natural balance after millions of years

And we think we can somehow do better.

If that's true, we have a LOT of catching up to do.