If you read Matter Network with any regularity, you may think you've already heard every wacky idea for storing carbon (rocks, trees, fake trees!). That's when some guy from the back of the room says, "hey, what about jellyfish?". Well, somebody said it.

As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, scientists in Australia are seeing an explosion in the population of salps*, jellylike ocean creatures. Although not true jellyfish, salps (which researchers are calling 'jelly balls') are 10x more numerous than they were 70 years ago. Their sparse diet consists mostly of the carbon dioxide muncher phytoplankton. Their waste then sinks to the ocean floor, essentially sequestering the carbon. After a few short weeks, the salps themselves die as well, becoming their own CO2 lockers.

Salps reproduce and grow quickly, making them efficient carbon sponges. However, it isn't clear that they are numerous enough to lighten the GHG load in any significant way. Furthermore, they tend to displace krill, an important nutrition source for whales and other marine mammals.

More than anything, the salp saga demonstrates that one change in an ecosystem usually sets off a chain reaction across the food web with unpredictable results. You can store some carbon, but you might kill a few whales.

*I can't wait for the day this word shows up in the Sunday NYT crossword

Source:
Sydney Morning Herald