What if the atmosphere had more oxygen

As a result of these processes, atmospheric oxygen levels have varied from a low of 10 percent to a high of 35 percent over the last million years or so. Poulsen and his colleagues were studying the climate and plants of the late Paleozoic, and during a meeting they started talking about whether oxygen levels might somehow have affected climate in the past. Studies have shown that atmospheric carbon dioxide has been the main climate driver through deep time, so most thought oxygen's role has been negligible.

But computer models based on carbon data have not been able to explain everything in the record. For example, the Cenomanian, an age in the late Cretaceous, was marked by high carbon dioxide and soaring temperatures, but models of this time usually spit out polar temperatures and precipitation rates that are too low when compared with data taken from the paleogeologic record.

Molecules of hydrogen and helium move really fast, especially when warm. Actually, they moved so fast they eventually all escaped Earth's gravity and drifted off into space. Carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater. Simple bacteria thrived on sunlight and CO 2. By-product is oxygen O 2. Earth will one day look very different. Its oxygen-rich nature is ideal for large and complex organisms, like humans, that require the gas to survive. One central reason for the shift is that, as our sun ages, it will become hotter and release more energy.

The researchers calculate that this will lead to a decrease in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as CO2 absorbs heat and then breaks down. This oxygen is derived from photosynthesis — the process by which plants turn carbon dioxide and water into organic matter and oxygen.

Oxygen has been relatively stable at a high level for the past million years. Today, roughly half of photosynthesis takes place in the ocean and half on land. Most of the oxygen produced by the ocean is directly consumed by the microbes and animals that live there, or as plant and animal products fall to the seafloor. In fact, the net production of oxygen in the ocean is close to 0. A tiny fraction of the primary production, roughly 0.

This organic carbon may eventually turn into fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. The tiny amount of oxygen which had been generated to produce this carbon store can later be released to the atmosphere.