Marine Environmental Modelling Group

Inventive intervention for the climate

February 8, 2024, Climate Story Network - Planetary Technologies caused a stir in August 2023 when they helped researchers from Dalhousie University’s Oceanography Department release a pinkish dye into the outfall at the Tufts Cove Generating Station.

That dye-tracing study was part of a new venture that is betting big on carbon removal. Planetary’s wager is that enhancing the alkalinity of seawater will heal marine ecosystems and boost the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Katja Fennel, one of the Dalhousie experts leading the study, says working with Planetary was a practical move.

“This was a mutually beneficial collaboration between our research team and Planetary, which made sense, given the size of the endeavour,” she says.

Will Burt, Planetary’s Chief Ocean Scientist, admits that the method they're using, Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE), has an unfortunate name.

See full article - Climate Story Network, Inventive intervention for the climate

Une expérience de géoingénierie sur le point de débuter à Halifax

August 20, 2023, Le Devoir - Aux grands maux, les grands moyens ? Dès le mois de septembre, une entreprise va déverser des dizaines de tonnes d’une roche réduite en poudre — de l’hydroxyde de magnésium — dans le port d’Halifax dans le but de retirer du CO2 de l’atmosphère. Le projet-pilote permettra de vérifier l’efficacité de ce procédé, dont les implications écologiques sont pour l’instant inconnues.

L’expérience simule un processus naturel, celui de l’érosion des roches, qui rend les mers moins acides, et donc aptes à absorber davantage de carbone. Cette « alcalinisation artificielle des océans » fait partie des solutions de géo-ingénierie que certains scientifiques disent incontournables pour freiner le réchauffement climatique, et que d’autres considèrent comme imprudentes.

« À notre connaissance, ce sera la toute première fois qu’une expérience d’alcalinisation artificielle des océans sera réalisée du début à la fin, même si c’est à très petite échelle. C’est un moment très important », dit Peter Chargin, l’un des vice-présidents de Planetary Technologies, l’entreprise qui mènera le projet-pilote en collaboration avec l’Université Dalhousie.

See full article - Le Devoir, Une expérience de géoingénierie sur le point de débuter à Halifax

Canadá ha tomado una decisión peculiar en su lucha contra el cambio climático: teñir un puerto de rosa

August 20, 2023, xataka - Hace unos días un grupo de investigadores de la Universidad de Dalhousie se acercó a la estación de Tufts Cove, una planta de generación eléctrica situada en la costa de Halifax, al este de Canadá, y arrojó a su emisario ni más ni menos que 500 litros de un líquido colorante que se extendió por las aguas de la bahía hasta cubrir de rosa un área de 500 metros de diámetro. Igual que si de un estrafalario vertido de chapapote fucsia se tratara, la mancha se prolongó a lo largo del litoral, dibujó más de una mueca de asombro a su paso y, a poco a poco, se esfumó.

No fue una performance relacionada con Barbie.

Ni una gamberrada o despiste de los estudiantes de la Dalhousie.

El propósito del vertido fue bien distinto: combatir el calentamiento global.

See full article - xataka, Canadá ha tomado una decisión peculiar en su lucha contra el cambio climático: teñir un puerto de rosa

Rzeka cała różowa jak Barbie. Wylali hektolitry chemikaliów w imię ekologii i ochrony klimatu

August 15, 2023, Focus - Co się stało w porcie w Halifax, kanadyjskim mieście w prowincji Nowa Szkocja? Wody u wybrzeża zmieniły kolor na różowy, przypominając nieco krajobraz z filmu „Barbie” – tegorocznego hitu kinowego. Okazuje się, że zjawisko wywołano celowo i to w imieniu nauki.

Mieszkańcy Halifax w Nowej Szkocji na pewno byli zdziwieni, kiedy zobaczyli 10 sierpnia, jak wody przy porcie zmieniły kolor na różowy. Do nietypowej sytuacji doszło w zatoce Bedford, do której spływa niewielka rzeka Sackville. „Dziewczęca” barwa wód nie ma jednak związku z tegorocznym hitem kinowym.

See full article - Focus, Rzeka cała różowa jak Barbie. Wylali hektolitry chemikaliów w imię ekologii i ochrony klimatu

Halifax Researchers Want to Alter the Ocean to Slow Climate Change

August 10, 2023, Saltwire - Some people may have noticed the Halifax Harbour near Nova Scotia Power's Tufts Cove Generating Station was glowing pink under the sun on Thursday morning.

That's because researchers from Dalhousie University added 500 litres of pink dye to the outfall of the power station to observe dispersal patterns before going ahead with a plan to add a base to lower the acidity of seawater.

The dye was only visible for a few hours after it entered the water.

See full article - Saltwire, Halifax Researchers Want to Alter the Ocean to Slow Climate Change

Dyeing the Halifax harbour pink to help fight climate change

August 10, 2023, CBC - Some parts of the Halifax harbour turned a bright shade of pink on Thursday — for science.

Researchers with Dalhousie University added pink fluorescent dye to Nova Scotia Power's Tufts Cove Generating Station in Dartmouth, so the colour can be tracked as it moves through the harbour over the next couple of days.

It's part of an experiment that could one day help the ocean better absorb carbon dioxide.

"This is only a small bit, actually, in a much bigger research endeavour," Katja Fennel, an oceanographer leading the research, told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon on Thursday.

See full article - CBC, Dyeing the Halifax harbour pink to help fight climate change

Halifax Researchers Want to Alter the Ocean to Slow Climate Change

June 15, 2023, Huddle.Today - The task is daunting. It is estimated that, in order to prevent the global temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees, we will have to remove hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere this century.

Much focus over the years has been placed on the importance of trees and their ability to remove carbon. Preserving and planting more forests will help in our fight, but what about the ocean?

Many people don’t know that, for eons, the Earth’s largest body of water has been an important carbon sponge for the planet. According to the Carbon to Sea Initiative, 38 trillion tonnes of carbon is stored in the ocean. Now, academic researchers at Dalhousie University are partnering with Halifax’s booming ocean tech sector to allow the ocean to suck up even more carbon from the atmosphere.

See full article - Huddle, Halifax Researchers Want to Alter the Ocean to Slow Climate Change

Could the sea help save us?

June 14, 2023, DalNews - The United Nations calls the ocean “the lungs of the planet.” It absorbs 25 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions and sequesters up to four times more carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere than terrestrial forests. But what if it could take an even deeper breath? What if we could leverage its natural capacity to sequester CO₂ from the atmosphere?

The answer to this question has the potential to be game changing for humanity’s fight against climate change, and Dalhousie has taken the global lead in pursuing it with nearly $15 million in support from the Carbon to Sea Initiative. Lead principal investigator Dr. Katja Fennel, chair of Dalhousie’s Department of Oceanography, says the Ocean Alk-align research program, which includes researchers in North America, Europe, and Australia, will investigate how a human-induced increase in ocean alkalinity could enhance the ocean’s ability to absorb and hold carbon.

See full article - Dal News, Could the sea help save us?

See related CTV interview

$50+ Million “Carbon to Sea Initiative” Will Accelerate Research into Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement, a Promising Carbon Dioxide Removal Approach to Combat Climate Change

June 7, 2023 - The Carbon to Sea Initiative, a non-profit research and development effort, launched today to accelerate research into ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE), which is a way to address climate change. OAE could be among the most effective and scalable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches.

Carbon to Sea has raised more than $50 million from philanthropic funders and to date has committed $23 million in grant funding to a network of dozens of researchers focused on OAE. Details about the grant-funded research and engineering projects are available at CarbontoSea.org.

See full article - Carbon to Sea Initiative, $50+ Million “Carbon to Sea Initiative” Will Accelerate Research into Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement, a Promising Carbon Dioxide Removal Approach to Combat Climate Change

See Also - MIT Technology Review, Meta’s former CTO has a new $50 million project: ocean-based carbon removal

2023 - Low-oxygen “dead zone” in the northern Gulf of Mexico predicted to grow to 12,600 km² this summer

June 5, 2023 - Dalhousie University scientists forecast that the size of the hypoxic zone (also known as “dead zone”) in the northern Gulf of Mexico will reach 9,200 km² by the end of July, when an annually recurring monitoring cruise typically maps location and extent of the hypoxic zone, and will grow to a maximum extent of 12,600 km² by the end of August. This maximum is more than twice size of Prince Edward Island and smaller by 10% than the 36-year average Gulf hypoxic zone of 13,900 km². The Dalhousie forecast is part of the annual ensemble dead-zone forecast by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The NOAA and USGS forecast, which is the average of an ensemble of six statistical models including the Dalhousie model, is similar to the Dalhousie forecast.

The hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico forms every summer and is the largest in North American coastal waters. Freshwater and plant nutrients—mostly from unused agricultural fertilizer, and urban and industrial wastewater—travel to the Gulf via the Mississippi River. These nutrients stimulate a sequence of biological transformations in coastal waters that significantly decrease oxygen levels near the bottom resulting in an environment unable to support most higher marine life forms.

All forecasts of the hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico are based on an estimate of spring nutrient discharge from the Mississippi, determined by the USGS in the first week of June. The forecast model developed by Dalhousie scientists Arnaud Laurent and Katja Fennel is unique in its ability to provide a temporally and spatially explicit forecast, in other words, the hypoxic zone’s location, size, and evolution is predicted throughout the summer season. This is the 6th year that a forecast with this level of detail has been produced (see 2018 forecast here, 2019 forecast here, 2020 forecast here, 2021 forecast here, and the 2022 forecast here).

Many other coastal regions around the globe are experiencing declines in oxygen, leaving marine animals increasingly gasping for breath. In the Canadian Maritimes, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Scotian Shelf are suffering from low-oxygen in near-bottom waters, squeezing the habitat of several commercially important and endangered fish species. This trend has been ongoing for several decades, as man-made inputs of nutrients and global warming conspire to depress oxygen levels in coastal ocean waters.

Additional Information

Figure 1: Predicted probability of hypoxic conditions in the northern Gulf of Mexico for July 29, 2023. The black line delimits the most probable region of hypoxic conditions. Figure 2: Predicted temporal evolution of the hypoxic zone in 2022 shown by the black line. Grey shading indicates the 95% confidence interval, a measure of forecast uncertainty. The red dot marks July 29, 2023.

Referenced in - The New York Times, Tens of Thousands of Dead Fish Wash Ashore on Gulf Coast in Texas (subscription required)