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Argument: Global warming grows phytoplankton; growing more is reckless

Issue Report: Geoengineering, iron fertilization of algae blooms

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Jef Huisman and Ben Sommeijer. “Global Warming could Destabilize Plankton in Oceans”: Global warming of the surface layers of the oceans reduces the upward transport of nutrients. Computer simulations predict that plankton growth will become unstable when the supply of nutrients is reduced. This may have a negative impact on the food chains of the oceans and on uptake of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the oceans. Scientists of the Universiteit van Amsterdam and CWI (the Netherlands) and the University of Hawaii (USA) presented their results in Nature of 19 January 2006.