Interesting new findings suggest the Amazon River powers tropical ocean's carbon sinks [ark | more\ark] by transporting nutrients well beyond the continental shelf, pushing carbon capture into the deep ocean. Fed from river transported iron and phosphorus, organisms called diazotrophs pull nitrogen and carbon from the air and make organic solids that sink to the ocean floor. This major river fed tropical ocean carbon sink [search] is thought to be more than enough to offset ocean respiration.

This is yet another startling demonstration of the Earth's cycling of nutrients and energy -- between forests, water, oceans and the atmosphere -- which makes all life possible. Each of these ecosystems is being dismantled to meet exponential human growth without even understanding how they work or interact with the others, threatening the operation of the Earth System [search] -- Gaia if you will. The most urgent task of all human history is to understand how Gaia works even as we work urgently and boldly to maintain her threatened ecosystem processes and patterns. Our and all being depends upon success for our future being.