Dissolved oxygen in the world's water bodies is rapidly declining, posing one of the most serious threats to Earth's life support system, a new study says. The team of scientists from the United States says the reason for this is climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. Scientific alert ReportedWarmer waters contain less oxygen, a major problem for aquatic life that depends on dissolved oxygen to survive, just as atmospheric oxygen is critical to humans and animals.
The research team wants to add deoxygenation of water to the list of “planetary boundaries,” thresholds that allow humanity to evolve and thrive.
So far, there are nine planetary boundaries – climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric ozone depletion, interference with global phosphorus and nitrogen cycles, rate of biodiversity loss, global freshwater use, land system change, aerosol loading, and chemical pollution.
“The observed deoxygenation of freshwater and marine ecosystems on Earth represents an additional planetary boundary process that is important for the health of Earth’s ecological and social systems, and also regulates and responds to ongoing changes in other planetary boundary processes,” the scientists said in the study.
“The relevant critical oxygen thresholds are approached at rates similar to other planetary boundary processes,” they added.
Other causes of rapid depletion of aquatic oxygen include increased growth of algae and bacteria due to influx of organic matter and nutrients in the form of agricultural and domestic fertilizers, sewage and industrial waste.
If oxygen levels drop to alarming levels, even microbes that do not depend on oxygen will die.
The research was published in Natural ecology and evolution.
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