Wind-driven pump can save the Baltic Sea

[auroraglacialis]

all the focus is on reducing the supply of fertilizer to the sea to reduce eutrophication in the Baltic Sea

And rightfully so. It is always better to go up against the cause of the problem than to patch it up. Maybe that geoengineering approach can help in some way, I just hope it does not lead to people neglecting the problem of overfertilization once the immediate negative effects are covered by this machines. I'd also like to see what this really does to the sea. But that has to be found out in the pilot study. In groundwater at least it is usually not such a good idea to try and boost bioactivity with oxygen, but rather let nature repair itself - after the cause of the pollution is gone of course.

I'd like to know a bit about where they think the phosphorous is going. For nitrogen in nitrate, the processes are rather clear - it is returning to the air if it is used by bacteria in conditions that have no oxygen, but phosphorous cannot go away, just be returned to the water where it causes algal blooms again. And as I said to remove nitrate, the conditions actually have to be anoxic, so I definitely think, well made studies are required to ensure that the two main problematic elements - nitrogen and phosphorous do not actually stay in the sea even longer...

By the way - the natural cycle to get phosphorous out of the sea goes in two ways - either it goes into migrating fish that go up streams and then get eaten upstream, fertilizing the forests - that way phosphorous gets back to the land. Or it goes into sea life that forms skeletons from apatite which get buried. That burial is happening under certain conditions which I cannot recall right now, so I guess it would be important to know if aerated water is favourable or not.