Kodaira Dimension of Fiber Sums along Spheres

In this note we discuss the effect of the symplectic sum along spheres in symplectic four-manifolds on the Kodaira dimension of the underlying symplectic manifold. We find that the Kodaira dimension is non-decreasing. Moreover, we are able to obtain precise results on the structure of the manifold obtained from the blow down of an embedded symplectic -4-sphere.