![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The early evolutionary and much of the extinction history of marine animals is thought to be driven by changes in dissolved oxygen concentrations () in the ocean1. Summarizing the research theoretically, Andrew Ridgwell said that all marine life would be destroyed as a result of an unexpected hot summer or any erosion. “Circulation collapse would have been a death sentence for anything that could not swim closer to the surface and the life-giving oxygen still present in the atmosphere,” Ridgwell said. Results show that collapse in global water circulation leads to a stark separation between oxygen levels in the upper and lower depths. This problem has been resolved with the new models used in the study, which can detect ocean anoxia - times when oceanic oxygen disappeared.įor the first time, this study also used a model in which the ocean was represented in three dimensions and in which ocean currents were accounted for. Models examining 540 million years of marine life were relatively simple and were not based on circulation in the ocean. “We were not expecting to find that the movement of continents could cause surface waters and oxygen to stop sinking, and possibly dramatically affecting the way life evolved on Earth.” “Many millions of years ago, not so long after animal life in the ocean got started, the entire global ocean circulation seemed to periodically shut down,” said Ridgwell. The researchers investigated whether the locations of continental plates affect how the ocean moves oxygen around by using complex computer models. However, new findings indicate that oxygen circulation and nutrients can end all of a sudden. As the water sinks, the atmosphere pulled from Earth's surroundings is carried to the ocean floor, reported Eurekalert.Ī return flow brings nutrients released from sunken organic matter back to the ocean’s surface, where it fuels the growth of plankton and this causes a great amount of marine animal diversity. When the water on the ocean surface approaches the north and south poles, it cools, condenses, and then sinks. Lindsay_imagery/IStock But how is that possible? ![]()
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