Dark oxygen: could we breathe if there was no sunlight?
Sergio Vasco Francisco, Maria Elena Casacuberta Suñer
Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona; Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE - CSIC - UPF)
Where does the oxygen we breathe come from? The quick and easy answer would be: “from plants”. But that doesn’t add up, so we dig a little deeper and see that we need to add much smaller organisms to the equation, which together form an enormous biomass: phytoplankton, composed of single-celled algae and cyanobacteria.
Plants, algae and cyanobacteria need light and water to produce oxygen. In addition, in order to carry out what is known as photosynthesis, they capture carbon dioxide, which is why they should be our allies against climate change.
Their goal is not really to produce oxygen, but rather to be able to build their bodies by creating organic matter from scratch. Nevertheless, they do produce it, and this has enabled the development of complex life on our planet (as well as mass extinctions).
However, can this element be produced in another way? Without light? Or even without the need for living beings? What is dark oxygen?
This article was originally published in The Conversation.