Bowing to pressure from environmental groups, the German science ministry has suspended a planned ocean fertilization experiment in the Southern Ocean and asked the researchers to commission an independent analysis of the project’s environmental impact before dumping anything in the ocean.

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Even though the nearly fifty scientists and crew aboard the icebreaker Polarstern will reach their destination in the Scotia Sea by the end of this week, Nature News reports they will not be dumping the ship’s payload – at least not yet.

Scientists with the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) had planned to spread their 20-ton cargo of iron sulfate over a 300-square-kilometer study area to induce an algal bloom in nitrogen-poor waters. After the photosynthesizing plankton grows and absorbs carbon dioxide, researchers hope it will die and sink down to the seafloor. By stimulating algae growth with nutrients scientists hope to learn more about the feasibility of sequestering carbon in algal blooms.

But environmental groups claim that the experiment, called LOHAFEX, would violate a moratorium on ocean fertilization that Germany brokered last May and would fly in the face of a UN ban on ocean fertilization. The concern amongst some in the environmental community is that the ecological impacts of dumping large amounts of iron to stimulate an algae bloom are simply unknown.

Not surprisingly, scientists with AWI were completely taken aback with the public outcry against their plans but hope they can maintain their schedule.

Researchers from AWI reportedly hope to get the independent research submitted to the German science ministry within ten days, at which point they hope to win approval and move forward with the plan.

Image: Hello, I am Bruce via flickr under a Creative Commons License