Where Does 70% Of the Worlds Oxygen Come From?

The word Oxygen is derived from the Greek phrase ‘oxy genes’ which means acid-forming. Oxygen is a chemical element and has a symbol of O in the periodic table. It is a part of the chalcogen group which is a very reactive non-metal and is an oxidising agent. It helps in forming oxides with most of the elements and compounds. After helium and hydrogen, the most abundant element on Earth is oxygen. It constitutes a major chunk of the crust of the Earth as it is available in oxide form.

Oxygen is a necessary element for mankind. The biggest question on everyone’s mind is where does the world’s oxygen come from? One-third of the oxygen we breathe comes from rainforests. The other 2 per cent comes from different sources. It is commonly understood that we get oxygen from trees only. However, the majority of the oxygen that we breathe i.e. atmospheric oxygen comes from the ocean. According to experts, plant-like organisms and marine plants are responsible for producing 70% oxygen.

What is Prochlorococcus?

Plants like phytoplankton, kelp, and algal plankton live in the ocean. These plants are solely responsible for producing 20% oxygen in the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is a process whereby sunlight and carbon dioxide gets converted into sugar, which is used by organisms for energy. Prochlorococcus- a type of phytoplankton- releases immeasurable amounts of oxygen into the ocean. The amount of oxygen is so small that millions of it can be inserted into a droplet of water.

Prochlorococcus produces the most oxygen in its photosynthesis process. It is responsible for producing oxygen for 1 in every 5 breaths taken by us. They are very small in size and are too tiny to be visible to human eye. However, when there’s an assemblage of Prochlorococcus, they appear like ocean slime with green in colour. The vast majority of the oxygen that we breathe is created by sea creatures that are invisible to the human eye.

Importance of Forests

The biggest question remains if 70% of our oxygen is being produced by sea organisms, then why do we need plants and trees? It is because the oxygen produced within the oceans is also consumed by marine life. Marine animals also need oxygen for their cellular respiration. Moreover, more oxygen is absorbed when plants die and there is animal decay within the ocean. This gets exacerbated when algal blooms die as the process of decomposition uses more oxygen than is replenished by the marine plants. This results in hypoxia or low oxygen levels, which are known as dead zones. This is due to the fact that the concentration of oxygen is too low to support any kind of marine life.

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