If a civilization uses fossil fuels, the climate change they trigger can lead to a large decrease
in ocean oxygen levels.
Other consequences include a decline
in ocean oxygen, the bleaching of coral reefs, and the melting of sea ice and ice shelves.
The collision wasn't directly responsible for the extinction, but rather triggered a series of events, such as massive volcanism and changes
in ocean oxygen, sea level and climate.
Not exact matches
«Estimates are that up to 80 % of the
oxygen you are breathing
in right now comes from the
ocean.
Dead spots
in the
ocean, where there is no
oxygen.
Bacteria thrive virtually everywhere on Earth — from sub-zero temperatures to over 750 degrees F (
in hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the
ocean), and
in widely varying
oxygen, pressure and nutrient conditions.
Researchers analyzed the levels of various trace elements
in hundreds of samples of carbon - rich shales that had been deposited
in oxygen - poor regions of the
ocean surrounding ancient continents during the past 3.5 billion years.
When hydrogen and
oxygen combine
in a planet's atmosphere, they can ignite into a ball of fire and then leave behind liquid water
oceans that would be good for life
In addition to temperature, wind, and solar radiation data, the Pacific saildrones are measuring how the
ocean and air exchange gases like carbon dioxide and
oxygen, and they are using Doppler instruments to gauge currents coursing up to 100 meters below the surface.
In the process, they might identify a planet's surface features — such as
oceans, continents, ice caps and even cloudbanks — and detect the presence of biomarkers like
oxygen, methane and water.
And new research shows how genetic alterations
in this odd - colored blood have helped the octopus colonize the world's wide
oceans — from the deep, freezing Antarctic to the warm equatorial tropics.The iron - based protein (hemoglobin) that carries
oxygen in the blood for us red - blooded vertebrates becomes ineffective when faced with low -
oxygen levels.
Aside from myriad practical applications, these organisms could exemplify the kinds of life that exist
in environments where little or no
oxygen exists, such as the deep
ocean or under the Martian surface.
«And the transition seemed to occur right around the time that there were very large changes
in ocean - atmosphere
oxygen levels and just before the emergence of animals.»
Examining the distribution patterns of microfossils, Shen's Harvard colleagues have discovered that the marine eukaryotic algae of 1.5 billion years ago occupied only the
ocean shallows and not the deeper basins, indicating a smaller
oxygen concentration
in the atmosphere than exists today.
That devastation could spread
in the future, as rising temperatures and agricultural runoff enlarge
oxygen - poor dead zones
in the world's
oceans.
Shen's own work demonstrates that the deeps of the Proterozoic
ocean were full of sulfidic gases, not dissolved
oxygen, and indicates that a complex natural environment, complete with a food chain and natural selection, was
in place on Earth at an early date.
About 2.7 billion years ago, photosynthetic algae
in the
oceans started making their mark, taking
in carbon dioxide as fuel and sending the by - product —
oxygen — skyward.
«A lot of that is associated with
oxygen minimum zones, hypoxia
in the
ocean, dead zones.
Both processes occur
in regions of the
ocean that are naturally low
in oxygen, or anoxic, due to local lack of water circulation and intense phytoplankton productivity overlying these regions.
This includes places like parts of the eastern Pacific
Ocean where small animals like nematodes and specially adapted fish live on the fringes of habitability, subsisting
in waters where
oxygen concentrations can be only about 1 % of normal surface water levels.
«As the climate goes up, the amount of
oxygen will go down, but it's really hard to look
in the
ocean to see that change,» he said.
It takes centuries longer for some effects to kick
in fully, such as the
oceans becoming poorer
in oxygen as they slowly warm.
In some ancient eras, according to other recent work on ocean chemistry, marine animals lived in «worlds of lower oxygen,» Lyons say
In some ancient eras, according to other recent work on
ocean chemistry, marine animals lived
in «worlds of lower oxygen,» Lyons say
in «worlds of lower
oxygen,» Lyons says.
Curtis Deutsch, associate professor at the University of Washington's School of Oceanography, studies how increasing global temperatures are altering the levels of dissolved
oxygen in the world's
oceans.
Meanwhile,
in the last 20 years, the OMZ had expanded upward toward the
ocean surface by 40 meters, and
oxygen levels had fallen by 20 percent
in the past decade.
By the late Mesozoic, the
ocean mid-waters were no longer low
in oxygen.
By accounting for both CO2 and
oxygen levels
in the atmosphere, scientists have calculated that
oceans and plants each absorb roughly one - quarter of humanity's CO2 emissions, leaving half to build up
in the atmosphere.
Researchers working
in Papua New Guinea think they may have been wiped out when the level of
oxygen in the
oceans rose dramatically, stimulating the evolution of
oxygen - hungry fish that simply out - competed the ammonites for resources.
We can thank them for
oxygen in the atmosphere, oil
in the lithosphere as well as dead zones
in the
oceans and now even a dead horse
in France.
Those sites gave her the chance to gather fossils from many different depths
in the ancient
ocean, from the more
oxygen - rich surface waters to deeper zones.
«It's probably too early to conclude exactly which geochemical changes
in the Ediacaran
oceans were responsible for the shift to large body sizes, but there are strong contenders, especially increased
oxygen, which animals need for respiration.»
Given the importance of
oxygen for animals, researchers suspected that a sudden increase
in the gas to near - modern levels
in the
ocean could have spurred the Cambrian explosion.
More broadly, previous research had found that
oxygen levels had declined
in OMZs
in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic
oceans since the 1950s.
These winds also started to generate
ocean currents, which
in combination with the expansion of an
oxygen minimum zone caused several of the atolls to be submerged.
These concentrations could have sustained small, simple animals, just as they do today
in the
ocean's
oxygen - poor zones.
These proxies seemed to indicate that
oxygen concentrations
in the
oceans rose
in several steps, approaching today's sea - surface concentrations at the start of the Cambrian, around 541 million years ago — just before more - modern animals suddenly appeared and diversified.
A study published
in Geophysical Research Letters
in 2011 found widespread declines
in oxygen concentration
in the upper
ocean between the 1970s and the 1990s.
«When tiny bacteria
in the
ocean began producing
oxygen, it was a major turning point and changed the chemistry of the Earth,» explained Katsev.
While
oxygen is believed to have first accumulated
in Earth's atmosphere around 2.45 billion years ago, new research shows that
oceans contained plentiful
oxygen long before that time, providing energy - rich habitat for early life.
But climate models predict reductions
in dissolved
oxygen in all
oceans as average global air and sea temperatures rise, and this may be the main driver of what is happening there, she says.
Scientists say reserves can help marine ecosystems and people adapt to five key impacts of climate change:
ocean acidification; sea - level rise; increased intensity of storms; shifts
in species distribution, and decreased productivity and
oxygen availability.
«The water
in the Arctic and Antarctic
Oceans is extremely cold, but also very rich
in oxygen.
Climate change could reduce
oxygen levels
in the
oceans by 40 per cent over the next 8000 years, leading to dramatic changes
in marine life
That was the key message of a new study recently published
in the journal Science,
in which American and German biologists defined the first universal principle on the combined effects of
ocean warming and
oxygen loss on the productivity of marine life forms.
In this regard, one of the key questions is: How will the warming of the oceans and resultant decrease in dissolved oxygen impact marine life forms» productivit
In this regard, one of the key questions is: How will the warming of the
oceans and resultant decrease
in dissolved oxygen impact marine life forms» productivit
in dissolved
oxygen impact marine life forms» productivity?
«If the
oxygen level
in a given region of the
ocean drops below a species» minimum requirements, it forces the animals to abandon their native habitat.
Around 2.7 billion years ago the first
oxygen - producing photosynthesis evolved
in the
oceans.
Despite the importance of
oxygen levels, relatively little information has been collected across the vast watery reaches of earth and this research is confined to six areas
in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian
oceans.
The problem stems from
oxygen reduction
in deep water, a phenomenon that some scientists are observing
in oceans worldwide, and that may be related to climate change.
The new sea - level record was then used
in combination with existing deep - sea
oxygen isotope records from the open
ocean, to work out deep - sea temperature changes.