Iron Siderophores:An Innovative Method of Ocean Acidification Reversal

Due to the increased carbon dioxide emissions over the past 50 years, the ocean has began to acidify at an alarming rate. One of the most promising ocean acidification reversal methods is iron fertilization. This is the process of dumping iron filings into the ocean to trigger phytoplankton blooms, therefore raising the pH of the oceans. This method, however, is not efficient enough to conduct on a large scale. Our solution was to use iron siderophores from the bacteria halimonas campisalis to fertilize the diatoms (species of phytoplankton) rather than iron fillings. This in theory would better stimulate diatom growth as iron chelated by siderophores is easier to absorb by autotrophs. After experimentation and dense data analysis, our hypothesis, that the treatment group with iron siderophores would have more growth, was not supported. Although the iron siderophores stimulated slightly more rapid phytoplankton growth, it was not sustained over extended periods of time. Finally, further experimentation is needed to clearly determine the specific effects of the iron siderophores on the phytoplankton growth.