12-17-2020
By
Earth.com staff writer
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have investigated the dynamics of ecosystems in parts of the ocean that have no dissolved oxygen to sustain animals or plants, which are known as ocean anoxic zones. In these areas, only microbes that are adapted to the environment can survive.
“You don’t get big fish,” said study co-author Morgan Raven. “You don’t even get charismatic zooplankton.” Even though anoxic oceans may seem alien to organisms like ourselves that breathe oxygen, they are full of life, she added.
As a result of climate change, ocean anoxic zones are now expanding. Raven is interested in learning how this will affect the ocean as a carbon sink. “What happens to our carbon cycle as we get these large areas of the ocean that are oxygen-free?”