Iron from steel and coal manufacturing is changing the North Pacific ecosystem: Study

Iron released from coal combustion and steel production is altering the ecosystem in a critical part of the North Pacific, a new study has found.

About 39 percent of dissolved iron in the uppermost layer of the ocean is rooted in human industrial activity, according to the study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Iron is essential for the growth of microscopic phytoplankton in the ocean, but industrial emissions contain aerosolized iron, which quickly dissolves in the ocean and disrupts nutrient balances, the authors noted.

These airborne metals, they explained, can flow to distant lands or oceans before getting scrubbed from the atmosphere via rain.

“This is an example of the large-scale impact that human pollution can have on marine ecosystem