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Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Arizona State University and Florida State University have for the first time developed a way to quantify how fast deoxygenation occurred in ancient oceans. Along with warmer sea temperatures and ocean acidification, ocean deoxygenation is yet another threat to marine ecosystems that has scientists concerned.
Triggered largely by human activities, expanding pockets of anoxic waters throughout the global ocean are making some fish habitats non-sustainable and are having impacts on economically important fisheries. To determine how fast oxygen loss occurs in the ocean over long time scales, the researchers studied ancient seafloor sediments during one of the Earth’s most extreme climate change events, known as Oceanic Anoxic Event 2. Shown here is a section of sediments capturing the 94-million-year-old event.Image credit: Jeremy Owens, Florida State University, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
