Destroy Life, Scientists Predict Oxygen Declines in 1 Billion Years

Suara.com – Recent research estimate that oxygen on Earth will only last for about a billion years.

This condition causes havoc for most of life on Earth, including humans.

Reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, two scientist predicted that atmosphere Earth will return to a composition that is poor in oxygen and rich in methane.

If so, this would be like the conditions that occurred during the early Earth before the Great Oxidation event, about 2.4 billion years ago.

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Kazumi Ozaki and Christopher Reinhard, reached this conclusion by modeling a number of Earth systems, including climate and biological and geological processes to measure the time scale of atmospheric conditions on Earth.

Earth can support life thanks to a highly oxidized atmosphere.

However, the new estimates highlight how an oxygenated atmosphere as well as oxygen-dependent life are not permanent features of Earth.

“The atmosphere after severe deoxygenation is characterized by increased methane, low levels of carbon dioxide, and no ozone layer. The Earth system will probably become a planet with anaerobic life forms,” ​​said Kazumi Ozaki, study author and Assistant Professor at the University of Toho. IFL Science, Tuesday (9/3/2021).

This long-term change in oxygen levels was most likely driven by the gradual illumination of the Sun.

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As the Sun ages, it will become more radiant and the Earth in the future will receive more solar energy.

This increase in energy will affect the surface of the planet, accelerating the weathering of silicate rocks such as basalt and granite.

Researchers think that this will reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide absorbs heat and breaks down.

Ultimately, plants and other photosynthetic organisms will not have enough carbon dioxide to produce oxygen, thus depleting this vital gas in the atmosphere.

“One result is a continuing decline in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and global warming on a geological time scale. Indeed, the Earth’s biosphere is generally expected to end in the next two billion years due to a combination of excess heat and scarcity of carbon dioxide for photosynthesis,” added Ozaki.

If so, experts predict, oxygen levels in the atmosphere will eventually drop as well. However, it is unclear when and how this happened.

These new estimates not only have an impact on life on Earth, but could also drive experts ’understanding of life on other planets.

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