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Global change

Silica control of carbon dioxide

Nature volume 406, pages 358–359 (2000)Cite this article

There is a popular view that the availability of iron, a trace nutrient, is a prime determinant of phytoplankton productivity in the oceans. But there are plenty of other influences on this primary productivity. Writing in Paleoceanography1, Kevin Harrison looks at the role of silica and argues that variations in silica's oceanic cycle would have altered the species composition of phytoplankton. The implications are considerable: such alterations are likely to have had a large effect on levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Dissolved CO2 in the surface ocean is taken up by phytoplankton through photosynthesis, a process that requires nutrients such as nitrate, phosphate and silicate (dissolved silica), and trace metals that are available in surface waters only in limited amounts. Through respiration and microbial activity, CO2 is then released back to the atmosphere. In principle, CO2 uptake from and release to the atmosphere are balanced. But when more of the photosynthetic production is exported from the surface ocean to the depths, in the form of the remains of phytoplankton and other organic matter, more carbon is retained in the ocean and less returned to the atmosphere. This flux of carbon to the deep ocean is called the biological carbon pump.

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Figure 1: The oceanic effects of higher silica inputs during the Last Glacial Maximum as compared with modern (interglacial) times.

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  1. the Université de Bretagne Occidentale, UMR CNRS 6539 Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, Technopôle Brest-Iroise, Place Copernic, Plouzané, 29280, France

    Paul Tréguer & Philippe Pondaven

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  1. Paul Tréguer
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  2. Philippe Pondaven
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Correspondence to Paul Tréguer.

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Tréguer, P., Pondaven, P. Silica control of carbon dioxide. Nature 406, 358–359 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35019236

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