Mon, 21 Dec 2020 13:45 UTC
The research team lowers a particle collection device into waters off the coast of Manzanillo, Mexico. Credit: Morgan Raven
With no dissolved oxygen to sustain animals or plants, ocean anoxic zones are areas where only microbes suited to the environment can live. You don t get big fish, said UC Santa Barbara biogeochemist Morgan Raven. You don t even get charismatic zooplankton. But although anoxic oceans may seem alien to organisms like ourselves that breathe oxygen, they re full of life, she said.
These strange ecosystems are expanding, thanks to climate change a development that is of concern for fisheries and anyone who relies on oxygen-rich oceans. But what piques Raven s interest is the changing chemistry of the oceans the Earth s largest carbon sink and how it could move carbon from the atmosphere to long-term reservoirs like rocks.
Oceans Without Oxygen
The research team lowers a particle collection device into waters off the coast of Manzanillo, Mexico Photo Credit: MORGAN RAVEN
With no dissolved oxygen to sustain animals or plants, ocean anoxic zones are areas where only microbes suited to the environment can live. You don t get big fish, said UC Santa Barbara biogeochemist Morgan Raven. You don t even get charismatic zooplankton. But although anoxic oceans may seem alien to organisms like ourselves that breathe oxygen, they re full of life, she said.
These strange ecosystems are expanding, thanks to climate change a development that is of concern for fisheries and anyone who relies on oxygen-rich oceans. But what piques Raven s interest is the changing chemistry of the oceans the Earth s largest carbon sink and how it could move carbon from the atmosphere to long-term reservoirs like rocks.
New research sheds light on carbon-cycle process in areas of the ocean without oxygen.
With no dissolved oxygen to sustain animals or plants, ocean anoxic zones are areas where only microbes suited to the environment can live.
“You don’t get big fish,” says Morgan Raven, a biogeochemist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “You don’t even get charismatic zooplankton.” But although anoxic oceans may seem alien to organisms like ourselves that breathe oxygen, they’re full of life, she says.
These strange ecosystems continue to expand thanks to climate change, a development concerning to fisheries and anyone who relies on oxygen-rich oceans. But what piques Raven’s interest is the changing chemistry of the oceans the Earth’s largest carbon sink and how it could move carbon from the atmosphere to long-term reservoirs like rocks.
12-17-2020
By
Earth.com staff writer
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have investigated the dynamics of ecosystems in parts of the ocean that have no dissolved oxygen to sustain animals or plants, which are known as ocean anoxic zones. In these areas, only microbes that are adapted to the environment can survive.
“You don’t get big fish,” said study co-author Morgan Raven. “You don’t even get charismatic zooplankton.” Even though anoxic oceans may seem alien to organisms like ourselves that breathe oxygen, they are full of life, she added.
As a result of climate change, ocean anoxic zones are now expanding. Raven is interested in learning how this will affect the ocean as a carbon sink. “What happens to our carbon cycle as we get these large areas of the ocean that are oxygen-free?”
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With no dissolved oxygen to sustain animals or plants, ocean anoxic zones are areas where only microbes suited to the environment can live. You don t get big fish, said UC Santa Barbara biogeochemist Morgan Raven. You don t even get charismatic zooplankton. But although anoxic oceans may seem alien to organisms like ourselves that breathe oxygen, they re full of life, she said.
These strange ecosystems are expanding, thanks to climate change a development that is of concern for fisheries and anyone who relies on oxygen-rich oceans. But what piques Raven s interest is the changing chemistry of the oceans the Earth s largest carbon sink and how it could move carbon from the atmosphere to long-term reservoirs like rocks.