Ocean Dead Zones Are Releasing One of The Worst Greenhouse Gases
BRETT JAMESON, THE CONVERSATION
6 JULY 2021
In October 2019, I set sail with a team of scientists aboard the Canadian Coast Guard Vessel John P. Tully in the northeast Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Vancouver Island.
Battling rough seas and lack of sleep, we spent the better part of a week working shoulder-to-shoulder in a small stand-up refrigerator, analyzing seafloor sediments to learn more about the effects of low-oxygen conditions on deep-sea environments.
When organisms die, they sink through the water column, consuming oxygen in the sub-surface ocean as they decompose. This leads to bands of oxygen-depleted water called oxygen minimum zones, or dead zones .
Nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, is on the rise from ocean dead zones theconversation.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theconversation.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.