Azolla (pictured), is a kind of "fern," and it has some pretty amazing properties. It seems that one of those properties is related to its symbiotic relationship with certain cyanobacteria.
I read about Azolla in a recent online article in Scientific American. I won't give away the secret. You'll have to read the article for yourself.
If the article is accurate, however, it might just be that Azolla could ride to the rescue, and help us out with our global warming problems.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-scientists-uncovered-arctic-clues-to-a-past-where-a-tiny-fern-changed-the-planet/?&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20140714
This is a typical latter day Scientific American article, popular, short on facts and high on speculation.
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing in the study to support the proposition that "Azolla sp." had any causal relationship with the reduction of atmospheric greenhouse gases 55 million years ago. Nor is there anything to suggest that "Azolla sp." might play a role in mediating present human CO2 production.
There is no silver bullet to lift humans off the hook for industrial effluents. The only viable solution is to stop producing gases that we know influence natural cycles of climate variation.
Climate variation is a "problem" that does not have a technological solution.
The Azolla doubling its mass in two days isn't very impressive compared to a bacterium, which can double in 20 minutes.
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