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Does diffusion of oxygen really need active mixing? I would have assumed even with a low oxygen atmosphere the oceans would slowly get saturated with oxygen by
by nn3 9y ago
Does diffusion of oxygen really need active mixing?
I would have assumed even with a low oxygen atmosphere the oceans would slowly get saturated with oxygen by diffusion and existing currently
Or do they mean that the rate needs to be diffusion higher than at what the animals are consuming it? That's a interesting question. Do animals actually make a dent in the ocean's oxygen content? If their rate of consumption is small enough it probably doesn't matter too much.
- staplers 9y agoI feel like this could be proven/disproven mathematically using an average oxygen diffusion rate over time calculation for whatever species the author is referencing. ex: Microbe A diffuses (0.0003mg of oxygen per day)x(population of species)x(years) = 100 billion tons of oxygen diffused into atmosphere per millenia
- civilian 9y agoI mean, the guy putting forward this theory is an expect in fluid dynamics. So I expect the answer is "yes, animals do make a big impact on oxygenation of the ocean". Here's another study from 2014 that talks about the link between animals and oxygenation of the oceans. (This paper just focused on the mixing of oxygen in the ocean, it doesn't claim that more ocean-oxygen led to a higher oxygen world like the OP. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140309150540.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140309150540.h... )