As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase, efforts have been made to help restore these levels to their natural state. An intriguing hypothesis has been put forward in an attempt to reduce these levels. By seeding regions of the oceans, known as high-nitrate low chlorophyll areas, with iron, it is believed that phytoplankton populations will grow. This in turn, through the process of photosynthesis, will lower atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Two major experiments that have been conducted in the last decade, examine the reality of such an undertaking. The potential for this method to be used on a global scale appear to be limited at best.

Ever since the Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700's, the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere has increased at dramatic rate. The majority of CO2 released into the atmosphere comes from the burning of fossil fuels and from land use such as deforestation, biomass burning and agricultural expansion, which limits the environments ability to recycle CO2 emissions (Walker and Kasting 1992). The concentration of CO2 is expected to double by the middle of the next century, causing global warming to increase by 1

Cavender-Bares, K., E. Mann, S. Chisholm, M. Ondrusek, and

Cullen, J. 1991. Hypothesis to explain high-nutrient

Moffett, J., and R. Zika. 1987. Reaction kinetics of

Chisholm, S., and F. Morel. 1991. What controls

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2016
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)