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Is there a difference between a drop in oxygen levels and a rise in CO2 levels? My understanding of the oxygen cycle is that O2 gets removed from the atmospher

Is there a difference between a drop in oxygen levels and a rise in CO2 levels? My understanding of the oxygen cycle is that O2 gets removed from the atmosphere by being bound to carbon in CO2. Further, since most of the oxygen is O2, while most of the carbon is currently biomass; any notable drop in O2 levels would be a disasterous rise in CO2 levels. Specifically, O2 is about 200,000 ppm, while CO2 is about 400ppm. As I understand it, a 1% drop in O2 levels would put us at about 2,400 ppm of CO2; at which point we are looking at significant cognitive decline; and I don't even know how to speculate on the grean house effect. On the other hand, climbing to the top of the eifel tower (1000 ft) corresponds to a drop of about 4% in the partial pressure of oxygen.

marcus_holmes 6y ago
> Is there a difference between a drop in oxygen levels and a rise in CO2 levels? Yes. These are two independent gases in the atmosphere. A drop in one does not equate automatically to an increase in the other. There's a process involved in converting carbon to CO2. To make CO2 levels rise by 6x, the process of converting would need to be running at 6x too. The entire of human industry over ~100 years has contributed to increasing CO2 levels by 1x (so doubling them). So we're not in any imminent danger of 6x.
pfdietz 6y ago
Oxygen is also removed by reaction with other reducing species, like sulfide and ferrous iron. And of course in reaction with organic matter water is produced also, not just CO2.