The Oceans

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Unit 2
Oceanic nutrients - Iron

In large areas of the ocean there are plenty of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorous but not many phytoplankton.  One of the biggest discoveries in oceanography over the past few decades has been that concentrations of iron in some ocean waters are lower than the levels that phytoplankton need to grow.  In this unit we look at the importance of iron in the oceans and why iron is important to our climate.  We also look at the pros and cons of deliberate large scale open ocean iron fertilisation and whether this could solve our global warming problems.