Small 'snowflakes' in the sea play a big role

In the deep waters that underlie the productive zones of the ocean, there is a constant rain of organic material called "marine snow." Marine snow does not only look like real snow but also behaves similarly: Large flakes ...

New indicator for oxygen levels in early oceans developed

Oxygen is essential for the development of higher life. However, it was hardly present in the oceans of the young Earth. It was not until the evolution of photosynthetic bacteria that the oceans saw a significant increase ...

Ocean currents modulate oxygen content at the equator

Due to global warming, not only the temperatures in the atmosphere and in the ocean are rising, but also winds and ocean currents as well as the oxygen distribution in the ocean are changing. For example, the oxygen content ...

How oxygen-producing cyanobacteria facilitated complex life

The "Great Oxygenation Event" (GOE), the process whereby the Earth's atmosphere was continuously enriched with oxygen, a waste product of photosynthesis, began ~2.43 billion years ago. The source, according to science, was ...

Long-term consequences of carbon dioxide emissions

The life of almost all animals in the ocean depends on the availability of oxygen, which is dissolved as a gas in seawater. However, the ocean has been continuously losing oxygen for several decades. In the last 50 years, ...

Tracking oxygen in the Sargasso Sea's 18-degree water

Off the eastern coast of the United States in the Sargasso Sea, the Gulf Stream and its associated ocean currents create a thick, homogeneous layer of water that stays around 18°C year-round. Since its discovery in the late ...

Ancient atmospheric oxygen sleuthing with ocean chromium

Found in jewelry, car parts, pigments, and industrial chemical reactions, the metal chromium and its compounds are often employed for their color, finish, and anti-corrosive and catalytic properties. Currently, geoscientists ...

page 7 from 22