BEIJING, June 28 (Xinhuanet) -- A plan to stimulate phytoplankton growth to reduce carbon dioxide by dumping iron dust into the ocean near the Galapagos Islands is under heavy fire from environmentalists, led by the World Wildlife Fund.

    Phytoplankton in the ocean already absorbs some carbon dioxide, and some scientists have speculated that releasing iron into the ocean could allow it to become a more effective carbon sink and reduce the greenhouse gas, which is exactly the idea that Planktos, Inc, a for-profit company, plans to test.

    "There are much safer and proven ways of preventing or lowering carbon dioxide levels than dumping iron in the ocean," said Lara Hansen, chief scientist with the WWF International Climate Change Program. "This kind of experimentation with disregard for marine life and the lives of people who rely on the sea is unacceptable."

    WWF scientists argue that the Planktos experiment could result in a shift in the composition of species that make up the plankton, which is the base of the marine food chain.

    Russ George, the CEO of Planktos, says the reason the Galapagos Islands have a rich array of life is because of the iron that drains from the islands into the ocean.

    "The Galapagos bloom is one of the most famous features on the planet," George explained.

    He says the Galapagos bloom is much larger than the one his group will be creating, and will actually serve as a control for their experiment, which will be conducted several hundred miles west of the island chain. George adds that they will be putting far less iron into the ocean than what comes from the Galapagos.

    George says the plans of iron enrichment will actually revitalize phytoplankton, whose numbers have been steadily dropping over the last couple decades, as was reported in a Dec. 7 paper in the journal Nature.

    According to researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, who have conducted such experiments, it is uncertain whether or not iron fertilization will actually substanitally reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide.

    (Agencies)