Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have reported encouraging results from an open-ocean experiment designed to test ocean alkalinity enhancement as a method to counteract acidification.
The trial, which involved the addition of 60,000 liters of sodium hydroxide solution to a designated marine area, has shown a clear increase in water alkalinity in the treatment zone after one year of monitoring.
The findings suggest that this geoengineering approach could be scaled to help mitigate the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems.
By raising the pH levels of seawater, the method aims to protect coral reefs and other calcifying organisms that are vulnerable to the corrosive effects of increasing carbon dioxide absorption.
While the initial results are described as promising, experts caution that large-scale deployment would require rigorous environmental impact assessments.
The experiment marks one of the first major field tests of this specific chemical intervention in an open-ocean setting, moving beyond laboratory simulations to real-world conditions.