Earth's Deoxygenation Expected in 1 Billion Years

In 1 billion years, experts estimate that the sun will heat up, warming the atmosphere and breaking down CO2 or carbon dioxide, then wiping out plant life that will eventually lead to Earth's deoxygenation.

The air in your lungs comprises oxygen and nitrogen, which are also the prime components of the Earth's atmosphere. Oxygen exists in the atmosphere due to the exhalation of plant life in the process known as photosynthesis.

Earth's Oxygen

A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience entitled, "The future lifespan of Earth's oxygenated atmosphere," predicts that in 1 billion years, the sun will heat up resulting in the death of plant life. Thereby it would be removing the prime producers of oxygen that animals and humans need to breathe.

Chris Reinhard from Georgia Tech and Kazumi Ozaki from the University of Tokyo, authors of the study, modeled the planets climatic, geologic, and biological systems to fine-tune scientific understanding of the Earth's future atmospheric conditions.

The authors undertook the research as a part of the NASA program known as NexSS to assess and explore the habitability of exoplanets.

The planet's atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, and 0.1% of other gases. But the Earth didn't always have a vast amount of oxygen in its atmosphere.

Over the first two billion years of the Earth, there was no oxygen in the planet's atmosphere. Low levels of oxygen appeared first when cyanobacteria known as blue-green algae released oxygen as a byproduct of their photosynthesis.

Roughly 2.4 billion years in the past, the planet experiences the Great Oxidation Event.

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The Planet's Deoxygenation

As our solar system continues through its life cycle, the sun will begin to age and heat up. The increased solar output will warm the Earth's atmosphere, carbon dioxide will breakdown and cause a further increase in temperatures.

Carbon dioxide levels will continue to lower until photosynthesizing organisms that rely on the intake of CO2 to live life plant life will no longer survive, effectively removing all sources of oxygen from the Earth.

Hence, when plant life dies due to the lack of CO2, not only will it be critical for the food chain, but it will also result in the loss of air produced which is vital for the survival of animals and humans.

Although the deoxygenation of the Earth is 1 billion years away, once the depletion begins, it will rapidly occur in roughly 10,000 years.

Reinhard explains that the drop in oxygen will be very extreme -- a million times less than the oxygen or O2 in the atmosphere today.

Additionally, the deoxygenation of the atmosphere will coincide with the rise of CH4-methane levels, to estimate 10,000 times more than what exists in today's atmosphere.

Experts predict that the deoxygenation will occur too rapidly for adaptation. The ozone layer, which consists of oxygen, will completely vanish. Ultraviolet light and heat will extinguish aquatic and terrestrial life. Reinhard says that at this point, the anaerobic and primitive bacteria hiding in the shadows will take over once again.