12+++ Steps To Remember About Why You Should Cherish A Healthy Ocean

Our oceans, 71% of our Blue Planet make 90% of our oxygen and manage our global climate and are suffering first and foremost from our fossil CO2. Here’s a list of how restoring them will keep our planet healthy and with life as we like it.

1. Cloud Formation & Albedo Cooling

• Phytoplankton blooms emit dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which seeds cloud condensation nuclei that foster bright marine clouds.
• These low marine clouds increase Earth’s albedo, reflecting sunlight and reducing solar heat absorbed by ocean surfaces.
• This natural sunshade effect is particularly critical near the equator and in coral reef zones—cooling surface waters and helping prevent coral bleaching during thermal stress events.
• 🌿 Saving Coral Reefs: Boosting low marine clouds through restored plankton pastures is one of the few viable geo-biological strategies to protect reefs from mass bleaching.
• Further Reading:
  • More Confirmation That Ocean Plankton Make Our Planet’s Clouds
  • Earth’s Clouds Keep Us Cool But Our Clouds Are In Danger
  • Ocean Plankton Specks Form The Heart Of Rain Drops

2. Rainfall Generation

• Bloom-seeded clouds drift over coastal lands, triggering rainfall and replenishing terrestrial watersheds.
• Restored rainfall cycles can mitigate drought and support agriculture in adjacent coastal zones.
• In many regions, this increased rainfall feeds into rivers and reservoirs that drive hydroelectric power stations. Thus, more rain from restored ocean pastures can generate vast amounts of clean, renewable energy, reducing dependency on fossil fuels and reinforcing climate stability.
• Further Reading:
  • Plankton Butterfly Effect Helps Make Rain

3. Carbon Sequestration (Blue Carbon)

• Phytoplankton convert atmospheric CO₂ into biomass.
• A portion of this organic matter sinks, locking carbon into the deep sea for centuries or millennia—nature’s most scalable carbon drawdown system.
• The potential of this process is vast. Ocean pastures, if globally restored and managed, could capture the lion’s share of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions—potentially exceeding 30 gigatonnes per year, according to authorities such as Sir David King, former Chief Scientist of the UK.
• Pioneering oceanographer Dr. John Martin, who formulated the Iron Hypothesis, famously proposed that ocean phytoplankton were so potent in drawing down CO₂ that “they could usher in a new ice age” if stimulated on a global scale.
• This highlights the unparalleled potential of ocean pasture restoration as a keystone climate intervention, not just for mitigation, but for genuine reversal of excess atmospheric carbon.
• Further Reading:
  • Cosmic Dust and Iron: Nature’s Climate Regulator and the Case for Ocean Pasture Restoration
  • Replenishing Natural Iron-Rich Dust Will Revive Photosynthesis, Feed Humanity, and Cool the Planet

4. Ocean Acidification Buffering

• Blooms reduce ocean CO₂ directly, helping raise pH and relieve acid stress.
• Stimulating blooms with iron is a million times more efficient than alkaline mineral buffering.
• Further Reading:
  • Plankton Threatened By Ocean Acid Trophic Cascade
  • Spring Blooms Convert Vast Amounts of CO₂ Into Ocean Life And Oxygen

5. Mercury Biofixation and Detoxification

• Plankton blooms act as biological sponges, absorbing and locking away mercury.
• They limit the formation of toxic methylmercury, protecting marine life and human seafood safety.
• Further Reading:
  • Plankton Manifesto, Replenish And Restore Our Ocean Pastures, Or …

6. Vertical Mixing from the Planet’s Largest Migration

• The Diel Vertical Migration (DVM) involves trillions of marine creatures cycling between deep and surface waters.
• They transport cold water up and warm water down daily, creating a massive biological mixing pump more powerful than wind or tides.
• Further Reading:
  • Ocean Oxygen Suffering In The Hands Of Political Science

7. Ocean Circulation, Stratification and Thermocline Management

• Enhanced biological activity restores thermocline structure and oxygenation, alleviating hypoxic dead zones.
• One of the most profound outcomes of this restoration is the elimination of destructive ocean heat anomalies, such as the infamous “Warm Blob” in the North Pacific. This persistent marine heatwave, linked to diminished circulation and lost ocean productivity, can be dissipated through the enhanced vertical mixing and cooling effects of revived ocean pastures.
• Further Reading:
  • Ocean Carbon Climate System Is Most Powerful And Important

8. Methane Reduction via Trophic Cascade

• Robust marine food webs reduce methane emissions linked to zooplankton collapse and stressed megafauna.
• Further Reading:
  • Ocean Pasture Restoration Will Immediately Resolve Methane Crisis
  • Atmospheric Methane Rise From Isoprene Demise Correlated With Collapse Of Ocean Pasture Phytochemicals

9. Sea Surface Microlayer

• These blooms also produce a thin, oily Sea Surface Microlayer (SML)—a vital skin of the ocean that regulates cloud formation, temperature, humidity, and wind.
• Some plankton enhance reflectivity by helping form microbubbles at the surface that reflect sunlight.
• This film, called the SML, is fundamental to Earth’s climate stability. **In a few more years, the SML may greately reduced along with its role in naturally regulating the climate through ocean-atmosphere interaction.
• Further Reading:
  • Replenishing Natural Iron-Rich Dust Will Revive Photosynthesis, Feed Humanity, and Cool the Planet

10. Amplified Ocean-Atmosphere Climate Feedback Loops

• Ocean pasture restoration tightens the Earth’s biological pump, stabilizing CO₂ and climate through reinforced feedback loops.
• Further Reading:
  • Ocean Carbon Tipping Process, Point, and Solution

11. Boosted Ecosystem Resilience

• Biodiverse, restored marine ecosystems are more adaptive to climate stress.
• Ocean pasture restoration brings back the fish, seabirds, whales, and all marine life—revitalizing the ocean’s food web from plankton to predator.
• The resulting increase in fish biomass offers a sustainable and abundant food source capable of feeding hundreds of millions of people, making it a crucial component in the global fight to end world hunger.
• Further Reading:
  • Ocean Pastures: The Key to Marine Ecosystem Resilience

12. Mitigating Methane Emissions from Cyanobacterial Dominance

• Cyanobacteria can produce methane even in oxygen-rich waters via the “methane paradox.”
• This shift is promoted by the collapse of green phytoplankton and can turn oceans into methane emission zones.
• Restoration prevents this collapse and mitigates greenhouse gas feedback.
• Further Reading:
  • Aquatic and Terrestrial Cyanobacteria Produce Methane (Science Advances)
  • Multiple Sources of Aerobic Methane Production in Aquatic Ecosystems (Nature)
  • Picoplanktonic Methane Production in Eutrophic Surface Waters (Biogeosciences)