Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

KENNETH S. JOHNSON, Moss Landing Marine Laboratory PETER JURS, Pennsylvania State University MARK E. MEYERI-IOFF, University of Michigan GEORGE H. MORRISON, Cornell University JANET G. OSTERYOUNG, North Carolina State University RICHARD THOMPSON, University of Maryland EDWARD S. YEUNG, Iowa State University ALBERTO ZIRINO, Naval Ocean Systems Center... 

Phytoplankton, the microorganisms that form the base of the food web in the ocean, take CO2 from the air and convert it into more complex organic compounds. When the phytoplankton die, they fall to the sea floor, and the carbon they contain becomes trapped in the sediment. If the rate of growth and reproduction of these organisms could be increased, more carbon dioxide would be used by them before it could escape from the ocean into the air. The late John Martin of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in Cahfornia suggested a way of making this happen. 

---