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Updated October 12th, 2021 at 12:41 IST

Oxygen on Earth ‘dropping sharply’, could take back life to Archean age: Study

A recent study has found that atmospheric oxygen is "dropping sharply" and can take the planet back to what is known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE)

Reported by: Dipaneeta Das
oxygen
Image: Unsplash/Representative | Image:self
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A new study has found that oxygen is unlikely to be a permanent part of Earth's atmosphere, suffocating most life forms. The study, published in Nature Geoscience and presented by Kazumi Ozaki from Toho University in Funabashi, Japan, and Chris Reinhard from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta combined biochemistry and climate model to measure the timescale of oxygen on Earth. Using a stochastic approach the researchers noticed that the life-supporting gas is "unlikely" to be a permanent feature of the habitable world.

Explaining the matter further, the article stated that atmospheric oxygen is "dropping sharply" and can take the planet back to what is known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) that had occurred around 2.4 billion years ago. “We find that the Earth’s oxygenated atmosphere will not be a permanent feature,” researcher Ozaki mentioned. As said in the paper, the process could occur in about one billion years or so.

"The model projects that a deoxygenation of the atmosphere with atmospheric O2 dropping sharply to levels reminiscent of the Archean Earth, will most probably be triggered before the inception of moist greenhouse conditions in Earth's climate system and before the extensive loss of surface water from the atmosphere," the researchers said in the published paper.

Causes for future deoxygenation

Calling it an "inevitable consequence" the researchers delved into possible causes for future deoxygenation of the planet. To explain it in simple terms, changes in the Earth's biosphere (planetary carbonate–silicate cycle) will largely affect the Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. Which in turn will result in less photosynthesis in plants, thus, lesser oxygen. This will lead to the emergence of anaerobic and primitive bacteria are currently hiding in the shadows, Reinhard said. “The biosphere cannot adapt to such a dramatic shift in environmental change,” researcher Ozaki added.

"The drop in oxygen is very, very extreme- we are talking about a million times less oxygen than there is today," Earth Scientist Chris Reinhard from Georgia Institute of Technology told New Scientist.

While concluding the researchers added that, although it sounds like an extremely long time span, as the event starts it will unfold relatively quicker. As per calculations by the team, the atmosphere "could run out of its oxygen over the course of just 10,000 years or so." Lastly, the results of the study emphasised the need for "robust atmospheric biosignatures" applicable to weakly oxygenated and anoxic exoplanet atmospheres, which will be of significant importance during the terminal stages of planetary habitability.

(Image: Unsplash)

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Published October 12th, 2021 at 12:41 IST

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