Microbes and the Missing Carbon Dioxide | Peter Pollard | TEDxNoosa

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Published 2015-07-06
In the global carbon cycle, carbon from the land is returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide through the microbes in freshwater.

Peter Pollard is a microbial ecologist with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and Microbiology, and a full-time research Associate Professor in the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University. Over the last 25 years his marine and freshwater research has changed the way we see the relationships between microbes — including algae, cyanobacteria or ‘blue-green algae’, bacteria and viruses — and their role in coastal zones, rivers, lakes, wetlands and water treatment processes.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
All Comments (15)
  • @davekohler5957
    The solution is regenerative agriculture and grasslands.
  • @B30pt87
    What a great talk! I'm going to look him up and delve further into this.
  • @lidijalakic1837
    I appreciate your passion and commitment to science/humanity. I hope we can use this information to work towards living in balance with nature, for the good of all.
  • @caseymacfarlane7995
    I had the pleasure of being in one of Peter's classes in Brisbane and he always presents with such enthusiasm and passion! Such fantastic research that he is conducting, can't wait to see what's next!
  • @juliamarple3058
    Complexity, yes 😳 I need to see this again. Too much to say in too short a time. Great speaker.
  • @robertcircleone
    Simple solution, pump or carry water from the mouth to the source starting with a bit of seawater so there are always bacteriophages in the river to remove the bacteria.
  • @Meijersrust
    This is a very interesting and important talk. Has there been any peer review of your research? The most immediate question I have is do the bacteria in soil also release carbon into the atmosphere. the whole pretense of regenerative agriculture is that we can capture carbon in the soil.
  • @xyzsame4081
    Interesting, but he is not organized enough, and had to rush at the end. And I did not understand the key point of the viral lysis immediately because he got so excited when announcing the key insight, that he spoiled it. - So they were not aware of 20 gigatonnes of carbon in the natural cycle. Doesn't help us because it is not sequestered. The 20 Gigatonnes can become less but not more. It is an interesting point if they want to keep streams clean (how about inserting pumps into ponds to add more air so the bacteria can process organic matter better) ? And of course rivers and lakes that are too polluted cannot process any of it. Even when the CO2 is processed so fast - it is a kind of sink, the part that is always IN the system (but that part cannot expanded it can only be REDUCED. Well it can be expanded if we create more ponds. On the other hand having soil likely binds much more carbon - taking it up from the air and also sequestering it).
  • @Kevin-jb2pv
    He seems a bit nervous and like there's a lot I didn't get to hear from his presentation. :(
  • @dadamokseshvarananda2683
    I fail to understand the "missing carbon" and I guess some gets buried in the ocean, but how much ? He does not show figures of quantities... In the past huge volcanoes emitted way more C02, but the earth recovered somehow. Plants need c02 to grow, in fact nurseries have compressed c02. Many questions unanswered and title of this lecture misleading