Have you ever got inquisitive about how earth's atmosphere became enriched with oxygen?
Researchers at University of Exeter may have solved this long-standing mystery.
They have theorised that the earliest land plants such as moss, which colonised the land from 470 million years ago onwards, are responsible for the levels of oxygen that sustains our lives today. Their emergence and evolution permanently increased the flux of organic carbon into sedimentary rocks, the primary source for atmospheric oxygen, thus driving up oxygen levels in a second oxygenation event and establishing a new, stable oxygen cycle.
Researchers at University of Exeter may have solved this long-standing mystery.
They have theorised that the earliest land plants such as moss, which colonised the land from 470 million years ago onwards, are responsible for the levels of oxygen that sustains our lives today. Their emergence and evolution permanently increased the flux of organic carbon into sedimentary rocks, the primary source for atmospheric oxygen, thus driving up oxygen levels in a second oxygenation event and establishing a new, stable oxygen cycle.
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