Title of Talk: Harnessing the marine biosphere for improving food security, producing raw

material and sequestering atmospheric CO2.

Speaker: Prof. Victor Smetacek

Bio-Oceanography
University of Bremen

Date & Time: 09 September 2021 ,1600 hrs to 1700 hrs IST
Meeting Link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-
join/19%3ameeting_MWE4N2FkNjItNzgyMy00NzBmLWEwZDItMDYwMTc4NWIzYThl%40thread.v2/0
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Summary of the Talk

Climate change, driven by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, is
proceeding rapidly with warning signs all over the world. To restore climate stability and stop retreat
of the cryosphere will require removing anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the tune
of 500 Gigatonnes (Gt C) of carbon. This is equivalent to the carbon present in all living biomass and
demonstrates the limits of planting trees. Negative emissions are unpopular because of the immense
investment in infrastructure required, coupled with demands for energy and storage space that would
divert attention and resources from the more urgent tasks of emissions reduction, ensuring food security
and preserving biodiversity. In my talk I shall present a nature-based solution for this dilemma:
establishing multipurpose, ocean farms in the blue-water deserts of the ocean’s subtropical gyres
(STGs) that cover almost half the planet’s surface but play minor roles in the carbon cycle and for food
production. The energy-autonomous aquafarms would grow a variety of sea foods from seaweeds to
fish sustainably by artificial upwelling with water brought to the surface by installing ~400 m modified
vertical Stommel pipes connecting cold but low-salinity deep water with the warm, high-salinity surface
layer. Once upward flow is started, it will continue by itself indefinitely without need for external energy
at rates determined by the rate of warming of upwelling water and the salinity difference between it and
the surface. The nutrient-rich, warmed, low-salinity water will float on the surface and be channelled to
multipurpose, ocean farms for sea food production but also comprising fields of floating seaweed such
as Sargassum for mass production of biomass for manufacturing bioplastics. If the pipes are made from
seaweed and deployed at sufficient scale, potentially massive carbon sequestration could be achieved
by periodically harvesting the rapidly growing seaweed biomass and, after compressing it into bales to
reduce microbial breakdown, storing it at selected sites on the abyssal plain, accessible to future
generations should the need arise. Opening new frontiers for human endeavour in the vast, empty spaces
of our planet will generate new resources and revenue and take pressure off the over-exploited
continental margins, allowing their ecosystems to recuperate and be used sustainably.

About the Speaker

Victor Smetacek is Professor Emeritus for Bio-Oceanography at the University of Bremen and former Head of
the Division Pelagic Ecosystems at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
(AWI) in Bremerhaven. He received his BSc Biology degree in 1964 in Nainital, India, and his PhD in 1975 in
Kiel, Germany and was appointed professor in 1986. He is an expert on plankton ecology and biogeochemistry,
particularly of the Southern Ocean and has carried out 3 open ocean iron fertilization experiments of which
LOHAFEX was an Indo-German Project in cooperation with CSIR-NIO. Since retirement he has been working
on negative emissions techniques.