{"id":3169,"date":"2021-11-04T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=3169"},"modified":"2021-10-22T02:12:15","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T02:12:15","slug":"earths-oxygen-may-not-last-forever-new-study-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/earths-oxygen-may-not-last-forever-new-study-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth’s Oxygen May Not Last Forever, New Study Reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Take a deep breath\u2014breathe in, then breathe out. The gases you took into your lungs just now have sustained complex life on this Earth for billions of years. Thanks to some unicellular bacteria some 2 to 2.4 billion years ago, a gradual spectacle called the Great Oxidation Event<\/em> (or GOE, which may have been kickstarted by volcanoes, according to some new studies<\/a>) caused oxygen levels in our dear planet to rise, which marked the beginning of the development of multicellular organisms on the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Earth\u2019s atmosphere is composed of 21% oxygen; this oxygen wasn\u2019t necessarily always there, though. (NASA Earth Observatory\/Wikimedia Commons, 2006) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And mind you, we breathe in or out at about 22,000 times a day\u2014that\u2019s quite an amount of oxygen just for yourself. However, a recent study published in the journal Nature Geoscience<\/em> argues that we should probably count our blessings; according to the study, changes in the atmosphere brought about by the GOE  are bound to be reversed\u2014and they will revert fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research duo behind the paper, formed by Toho University researcher Kazumi Ozaki and Georgia Institute of Technology Earth scientist Chris Reinhard, argues that oxygen isn\u2019t really a permanent presence in planets with habitable atmospheres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ozaki and Reinhard ran simulations of our biosphere to get the data they needed to reach this astounding conclusion. They factored in both the Sun\u2019s fluctuating brightness and the \u201ccorresponding drop\u201d in carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) levels following such a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, the Sun will only get hotter as it continues to age and consume its stellar fuel. Once temperatures around our place reach higher levels than even today, CO2<\/sub> gets broken down by the heat from the Sun, which then inhibits the growth of plants and other photosynthesizing organisms\u2014leading to the oxygen drop mentioned before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Ozaki mentioned to news outlet New Scientist<\/em>: \u201cWe find that the Earth\u2019s oxygenated atmosphere will not be a permanent feature.\u201d Reinhard followed: “The drop in oxygen is very, very extreme. We’re talking around a million times less oxygen than there is today.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sudden drop in oxygen levels is expected to happen in a very short time in geologic terms\u2014within about 10,000 years or so after it starts. The duo also expects an upwards of 10,000 times increase in methane levels in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the words of Ozaki himself: \u201cthe biosphere cannot adapt to such a dramatic shift in environmental change.\u201d The drop in oxygen levels would spell doom for any complex life still around by the time it is predicted to occur; only anaerobic organisms are expected to be left behind, as lifeforms in both land and sea will feel the gradual suffocation by the loss of oxygen in their environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, Ozaki\u2019s and Reinhard\u2019 s research is part of NASA\u2019s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science<\/em> (NxESS) project, which investigates the habitability of other exoplanets. To Ozaki and Reinhard, their findings are also set to impact just how we look beyond our skies for worlds like our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The search for habitable exoplanets, or even planets which have already been inhabited in either the past or present, might have some readjusting to do in light of the findings by both Ozaki and Reinhard. (ESO) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To them, it might be necessary to look for other biosignatures<\/em>\u2014markers in a planet\u2019s composition that may indicate the presence of life on its surface\u2014instead of simply seeking oxygen, as our life-giving gas may be doomed not to last forever in any atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No need to panic, though\u2014the atmospheric oxygen level reversal isn\u2019t expected to happen for at least a couple of a billion years, according to the duo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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