Climate Change, the Oceans, and the Oxygen Cycle

Many Parts of the Oceans are Becoming Deoxygenated (Hypoxia or Anoxia)

Because of a variety of factors, such as ocean warming so it can hold less dissolved gases, dead zones from agricultural and municipal runoff, and weakening ocean circulation, the oceans are in many places and strata becoming hypoxic. Healthy seawater has 6-10mg/liter of O2 in many of its strata, but they can be much less which threatens life. The only way that oxygen gets into the oceans is by surface mixing or from plankton and algae and sea grass in the areas where light reaches. The photic zone, which is lit, reaches down about 200 meters but in the lower depths of that, little photosynthesis is occuring. Lower depths, and the ocean's average depth is about 4,000 meters, relie on the global thermohaline circulation, specifically the vertical part, to become oxygenated.

The Atmosphere Will not Become Deoxygenated Any Time Soon, and Climate Victory is Doable

It is important to note FIRST that while the oceans have 6-10 mg / liter of oxygen, the atmosphere has 210,000 parts per million or 21% oxygen. While problems are developing in the ocean even now, the Earth will find a new equilibrium, we think, long before the atmosphere runs down. But ocean deoxygenation and acidification would result in a mass extinction event eventually, and while humans may survive that it would cause us major problems and disruptions including needless casualties. IT IS NOT TOO LATE! In addition to reducing carbon emissions we can also DRAW DOWN atmospheric carbon dioxide in many ways, soil-regenerating agriculture and other land sinks together with coastal and ocean sinks collectively would be one of the largest contributors from the Project Drawdown Table of Solutions list, since many other categories go to emissions reductions, not increased uptake out of the atmosphere. Also, check out the documentary Kiss the Ground. I probably should have added this "why we are not doomed" section long ago [5/24/2024]. For a quick explanation (one of many) why it is not too late, see this YouTube video We WILL Fix Climate Change by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. For many explainers and tutorials with infographics from an actual geosciences PhD doing her post-doctorate work, Dr. Rachel Phillips, see GEO GIRL on YouTube or her website geogirlscience.com.

In particular see these series she has collected together:

• Global Biogeochemical Cycles & Climate Change (Full Course) playlist, 14 videos ranging from 14-35 minutes each
• Biogeochemistry Playlist playlist (there is significant overlap), 11 videos from 17-27 minutes each/li>
• Mass Extinctions, Ice Ages, & Other Events In Earth's Past playlist, 19 videos from 11-25 minutes each

Fear and Catastrophe are Demotivating But a Shift in Perspective Can Be Motivating

Meanwhile, I believe the way to persuade reachable people who are skeptical about Climate Victory should not be appeals to fear or catastrophe, but instead trying to induce what I refer to as 'Existential Vertigo'. One example of this is that were the Earth basketball sized, the International Space Station would be a half-inch off the surface, and the troposphere, holding 95% of the atmospheres mass would be half the thickness of a sheet of paper at 18km, while the ocean at an average 4 km deep would be 1/9th of a sheet of paper thick. Meanwhile, the Moon is around 29 basketball diameters away.

Here is a Story of Someone Who had an Wake Up Moment ('bonked on the head and everything changed')

"The End of the World as We Know It" Prologue - This American Life which I would say is probably another example of Existential Vertigo. /// Relevant part: about 00:35-07:05

40% to Two Thirds of Earth's Current Oxygen Production is Estimated to come from the Oceans

The ocean absorbs most of the heat and an estimated 30-40% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) resultant from climate change, leading to the disruption of vertical and horizontal flows of water, flows and concentrations of oxygen, carbon dioxide, salinity, and other molecules and nutrients. This happens on a global scale. Oxygen and other gases is lost more easily from warmer water into warmer air. Additionally, increased CO2 gaseous raises tilts the inorganic carbon equilibrium in seawater to increase HCO₃^-, H⁺, and Ca²⁺, while reducing CO₃^2- (which is more basic than HCO₃^-) and CaCO₃¹. This is the driver of ocean acidification, which is harmful to many marine organisms, particularly shell-forming species.² The combination of and feedbacks between increased CO₂, increased temperature, decreased dissolved oxygen, and decreased pH amplify stress on most marine organisms more than their simple addition could be expected to.

Meanwhile, all this, and the related massive algae blooms play into the increase in 'dead zones' of waters depleted of oxygen. The sudden fallout of huge amounts of deceased singled-celled organisms then uses up more oxygen and releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and CO₂ as they decay.

It is thought of much less, since the plants, algae, diatoms, seaweeds, and other photosynthesizing organisms are net oxygen producers, but photosynthesizers ALSO require environmental oxygen to breathe (operate their metabolic structures) and live, not only CO₂ and sunlight and water. So dead zones also destroy oxygen producers.

While it's hard for some people to imagine any individual or local action having a meaningful influence in mitigating climate change issues, many of the oxygen depleted dead zones are driven primarily by local human-induced factors. Namely, nutrient runoff from agriculture, aquaculture, landscaping, sewage, and such like. These are things we very much CAN do something about at the individual, household, business, local, state, and national levels. As well, every gram of carbon counts, and the excess will have to be removed from the atmosphere and ocean by photosynthesis mainly, or other processes to a lesser degree

It is important to note that major photosynthetic groups (aerobic microbes such as phytoplankton, algaes, and plants) are also those responsible for by far the greatest fraction of carbon fixation on this planet. This means that they convert carbon dioxide directly into organic molecules, thus removing the CO₂ from the atmosphere and/or ocean. So, a collapse in their population from climate change reduces oxygen (much faster with the far lower O₂ concentrations in aqeuous environments), reducing their population further from hypoxia, and as a result the amount of CO₂ removed from the atmosphere then falls driving more climate change in a vicious cycle. The recent 2018 IPCC report states that there is now at most ten years left to reduce and begin to reverse greenhouse gas accumulation before it will produce utterly catastrophic change.

The research demonstrating the essential problem:

It's important to note here that the photic zone, where light penetrates the ocean, is only 200 meters deep, and this surface layer could be warmed much faster than the entirety of the ocean. As well, a collapse of marine oxygenation will affect the ocean far more rapidly than the atmosphere, since the molecular oxygen fraction in seawater is about 3-6ppm (parts per million) while in air it is about 21% (210,000ppm). Even accounting for density, seawater is about 900 times denser than air at sea level, but not 35-70,000 times denser.

There used to be a press release linking the quoted article, Mathematical Modelling of Plankton–Oxygen Dynamics Under the Climate Change’ from the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology written for a general audience which was titled 'Global warming disaster could suffocate life on planet Earth, research shows' from the University of Leicester Press Office, UK - December 2015, but it is no longer there.

About two-thirds of the planet’s total atmospheric oxygen is produced by ocean phytoplankton – and therefore cessation would result in the depletion of atmospheric oxygen on a global scale. This would likely result in the mass mortality of animals and humans.

The team developed a new model of oxygen production in the ocean that takes into account basic interactions in the plankton community, such as oxygen production in photosynthesis, oxygen consumption because of plankton breathing and zooplankton feeding on phytoplankton.