Applications of Wave-Driven Ocean Pumps This bleaching is often caused by higher surface ocean temperatures during the peak summer months. The number of degree-days above normal has a large effect on the chance of bleaching. Lowering the ambient water temperature by as little as 1 degree for the peak days is enough to reduce the number of Wave driven ocean pumps can be deployed in a linear array upstream from the target area to upwell cooler water into the mixed layer and reduce peak temperatures of surface waters. This cooler water advects onto the reef, protecting the reef from the highest temperatures that cause coral bleaching and subsequent mortality. By deploying these pumps during the peak season each year, it is possible to locally manage this effect of climate change on high-value reefs, thereby preserving these reefs during the coming decades, times that will pose the greatest threat to these ecosystems. Making
these critical tools available to coral reef management authorities may
determine the survival of these coral reef ecosystems in the years and
decades to come, critical decades during which the reefs will be most at
risk until mankind's greenhouse gas emissions come under control. Once
these benefits have been demonstrated through rigorous field testing
procedures, we can scale these coral reef protection systems to cover
extended reef areas spanning hundreds of Carbon Dioxide Recycling in the Deep Ocean Atmocean technology
uses kinetic wave energy to bring up higher-nutrient deep water. In the
presence of sunlight, and assuming appropriate ocean environmental
conditions, the enhanced nutrients generate blooms of phytoplankton,
which absorb dissolved CO2 and generate oxygen through the process of
photosynthesis. When the phytoplankton are consumed by higher Until
recently, conventional wisdom regarding limits to phytoplankton
productivity in the upper sunlit zone of the ocean cited the Redfield
Ratio as the limiting factor to how much net benefit could accrue from
wave-driven ocean pumps. The Redfield Ratio limits the
amount of carbon that each phosphate atom can recycle. For the average
of all the ocean is it 106 carbon atoms for every phosphate atom. If
CO2 recycling efficiency is limited by phosphate, and deeper water
contained proportional concentrations of nitrate, phosphate and
dissolved CO2,
then net additional absorption from upwelling of phosphate would be balanced by the higher concentrations of CO2 brought upward - at best a zero sum game. But Professors David M. Karl from University of Hawaii, and Ricardo Letelier from Oregon State University have recently published a peer-reviewed paper hypothesizing that upwelling of certain deeper waters (generally 300m or more) can result in a secondary bloom governed by nitrate as the limiting nutrient - with the result that several-fold greater net absorption of CO2 is possible. The absence of nitrate causes diazotrophic (nitrogen fixing) phytoplankton to dominate the second bloom, with super-Redfield C:P ratios of >200:1. Given this new Karl-Letelier hypothesis about potential
net sequestration of CO2, if ocean biogeochemical conditions are
suitable for generating primary and secondary blooms, and given the
potential for a single Atmocean pump
to produce nominal upwelling volume of 200,000 cubic meters per day
(consistent with 3 meter wave height), initially we estimate upwelling
of these waters could result in net additional sequestration of about 60
tons CO2 per pump per year, with the significant added benefit of
1.5 tonnes annual increase in fish biomass. Many elements of this
process remain to be tested, including the multiple effects over many
seasons and in different ocean environments, and how the upper, mid, and
deep-ocean concentrationsof nutrients and CO2 could transition over
longer time periods. To initiate testing of the Karl-Letelier Hypothesis, in May 2008 The Climate Foundation and Atmocean participated
in an ocean test of three pumps in the Pacific about 60nm north of
Hawaii. This test is featured on the Discovery Channel Project Earth
episode "Hungry Oceans". In brief, while not all the experimental goals
were achieved (due to structural failures, and an inappropriate pump
deployment method), the tests conclusively proved our capability to pump
up nutrient-rich water from 300m deep in the open ocean, solely using
wave energy. Since we learn more from failure than success, these tests
prompted a new durable pump design for extreme ocean conditions. We
expect this new design, which very closely mimics natural ocean mixing
processes, can be produced and deployed at equal or lower cost than our
"original" design. If comprehensive future testing demonstrates that the
environmental consequences are manageable and achieves permanent,
additional, net CO2 absorption in the oceans, this could lead to large-scale commercial implementation. Hurricanes Given the very active hurricane season of 2008
- refreshing our memories of 2005 (Katrina, Rita, and Wilma) and 2004
(Charlie, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne) - there is renewed interest in
deploying Atmocean upwelling pumps to cool the upper ocean and reduce hurricane intensity. We have worked with Atmocean in
their use of the GFDL coupled ocean-atmosphere tracking & intensity
model used by National Hurricane Center to model the effects on
intensity attributable to cooling the upper ocean. From this we have developed the following deployment strategy: > Deploy Atmocean pumps in the path of the hurricane. > Cover an area 150km square > The area of pumps begins offshore where at least 10 degrees C. colder water is found (typically a minimum depth of 75-100 meters). > Since the hurricane generates ever-increasing waves, more cold water is pumped as the storm approaches, resulting in overall cooling by about one degree C. - enough to lower peak winds 5% to 20%. Since hurricane damages are proportional to the cube of windspeed, damages could be reduced up to 50 percent.
Both in 2005 and
this year, a portion of the Gulf Stream spun off and
formed a large eddy of very warm, deep water in the Gulf of Mexico. If
an approaching storm has a well-formed eye, low wind shear in the upper
atmosphere, and crosses this warm eddy, rapid intensification is
likely. Therefore, a further strategy is to deploy Atmocean pumps
weeks ahead of time in the warm eddy to reduce its heat content and
mitigate against rapid intensification. We hope to conduct further
modelling of this strategy in the near future. Open Ocean Aquaculture Unsustainable
overfishing of the high seas is stressing our supply of protein from
the ocean, and environmental degradation on continental shelves is
further damaging the ocean environment (evident from the widening dead
zones where oxygen depletion greatly curtails marine life). All this,
even as our global population is expected to increase from six billion
to nine billion by mid-century, requiring major expansion of global food
supply. Farm-raised fish (aquaculture) is needed to satisfy
the growing demand for protein from the sea, but traditional
aquaculture relies on fishmeal and fishoil from the ocean "reduction"
fisheries - the supply of which also is flat or declining. Grain-based
food supply for aquaculture is a poor substitute as it is low in healthy
omega-3 fatty acids, and shifting to grain-based food for aquaculture
just adds stress and increases prices of our global food supply. Our strategy to reverse these trends is to deploy large numbers of
Note: To order the DVD set of all eight Project Earth episodes, click on http://shopping.discovery.com/ product-74197.html?tcp=DVDsampBoo-Top5-03-ProectEarthDVDSet, or contact Atmocean to purchase a DVD of just the "Hungry Oceans" episode. (Note: the Climate Foundation makes no money off of The Project Earth Dvds). |
