BUBBLES CAN SAVE OUR REEFS NOW

Bubbles just got more beautiful! That’s because they are helping to save something beautiful from extinction: coral reefs.

Scientists at Stanford University have developed a way to help remove carbon dioxide from oceans to slow their acidification -- using little spheres of air -- bubbles.

According to a new study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

By blowing tiny bubbles through seawater, we can eliminate one of the main factors threatening to kill 90% of the world’s coral reefs.

Burning fossil fuels increases the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. About 30% of the CO2 then dissolves into the ocean, combining with water molecules to form carbonic acid. It reduces the amount of calcium carbonate that corals and shellfish need for strength and structure.

David Koweek, lead author of the study and a doctoral candidate at the Stanford School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, got the idea to test “bubble pulsing,” while studying the natural 24-hour cycles of marine environments.

During daylight, CO2 levels naturally drop due to the respiration effects of photosynthesis. At night, CO2 levels increase. Bubbling air through seawater at night would be particularly beneficial, giving corals and carbonate-dependent shellfish a chance to grow.

The team ran experiments in a sensor-fitted tank at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station. They found that after pushing little spheres of oxygen through seawater for just a few hours in early morning, the transfer rate of CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere occurred 30X faster than normal, significantly lowering the concentration of CO2 in the water.

Bubbling offers a way to return coral reefs to the conditions on par with 100 years ago.

Oxygen bubbling has been used in large lakes and seas for decades to break up deep water “dead zones” -- oxygen-deprived waters caused by thermal stratification and algae blooms.

A new high tech bubbling system has recently been installed In the Baltic Sea in an attempt to breathe life back into a large dead zone in a Swedish fjord. Eventually it could be used to save the entire Baltic Sea.

The bubble technology is simple -- basically an outsize version of the bubbling system in any home aquarium.

Bubbling systems could use a solar array or even wave power as alternative energy sources. This would make their operation inexpensive, scalable, and sustainable.

Read more about Beautiful Spheres in A Universe of Beautiful Spheres, Our Galaxies Are Blowing Giant Bubbles Now, Beach Plums & Rose Hips: Beautiful Wild Fruit Spheres to Love Now, Spheres of Reflection, Seeing Places as Spheres of Beauty Now and Living with the Beauty of Spheres Now.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Jim Marago.Courtesy of USFWS - Pacific Region. “Coral Reef at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.”
2. Image: by Anne. “Bubbly.”
3. Image: by Jan Messersmith. “Acabaria Fan Coral.” Barracuda Point. Papua New Guinea.
4. Image: Courtesy of Coral Vita. “Coral Reef.”
5. Image: by Bunn. “Coralscape.”
6. Image: by dazegg. “Untitled.”
7. Image: by Kylen Louanne. “Untitled.”
8. Image: Courtesy of USFWS. “Coral, Jarvis Island National Wildlife Refuge.” Jarvis Island,  United States Minor Outlying Islands.
9. Image: by David Chao. “Blue Ocean.”
10. Image: by Zsolt Fila. “Bubbles.”
11. Image: by only_point_five. “Coral Reef.”
12. Image: by Glenn Marsch. “Multi-hued Dragon of the Sea.”
13. Image: by BN App - Download now!
14. Image: by Ryan Lane. “Bubble.”