Surprise Discovery: Sleeping Giant Could End Deep Ocean Life

Red Medusa

Red medusa found just off the bottom of the deep sea in Alaska. Credit: Hidden Ocean 2005/NOAA

Continental movement is capable of throttling marine oxygen.

A previously overlooked factor — the position of continents — helps fill Earth’s oceans with life-supporting oxygen. Continental movement could ultimately have the opposite effect, killing the majority of deep ocean creatures.

“Continental drift seems so slow, like nothing drastic could come from it, but when the ocean is primed, even a seemingly tiny event could trigger the widespread death of marine life,” said Andy Ridgwell, University of California, Riverside geologist. Ridgwell is co-author of a new study on forces affecting oceanic oxygen.

As the water at the ocean’s surface approaches the north or south pole, it becomes colder and denser and then sinks. When the water sinks, it transports oxygen pulled from Earth’s atmosphere down to the ocean floor. 

Deep Reef Fish Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument

Fish on a deep reef at Pearl and Hermes Atoll in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument near Hawaii. Credit: Greg McFall, NOAA

Eventually, a return flow brings nutrients released from sunken organic matter back to the ocean’s surface, where it fuels the growth of plankton. Today’s oceans feature an incredible diversity of fish and other animals that are supported by both the uninterrupted supply of oxygen to lower depths and organic matter produced at the surface.

New research has found that this circulation of oxygen and nutrients can end quite suddenly. Using complex computer models, the scientists investigated whether the locations of continental plates affect how the ocean moves oxygen around. They were surprised to find that it does.

This finding led by researchers based at UC Riverside is detailed in the journal Nature. It was published today (August 17, 2022).

Resting Balloonfish

Resting balloonfish near the Florida Keys. Credit: OAR/National Undersea Research Program (NURP); University of Maine

“Many millions of years ago, not so long after animal life in the ocean got started, the entire global ocean circulation seemed to periodically shut down,” said Ridgwell. “We were not expecting to find that the movement of continents could cause surface waters and oxygen to stop sinking, and possibly dramatically affecting the way life evolved on Earth.”

Up until now, models used to investigate the evolution of marine oxygen over the last 540 million years were relatively simple and didn’t account for ocean circulation. In these models, ocean anoxia — times when oceanic oxygen disappeared — implied a drop in atmospheric oxygen concentrations.

“Scientists previously assumed that changing oxygen levels in the ocean mostly reflected similar fluctuations in the atmosphere,” said Alexandre Pohl, first author of the study and former UCR paleoclimate modeler, now at Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté in France.

Diorama of Ancient Ediacaran Period Sealife

Diorama of ancient Ediacaran period sealife displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Credit: Smithsonian

For the first time,  this study used a model in which the ocean was represented in three dimensions, and in which ocean currents were accounted for. According to the results, collapse in global water circulation leads to a stark separation between oxygen levels in the upper and lower depths.

That separation meant the entire seafloor, except for shallow places close to the coast, entirely lost oxygen for many tens of millions of years, until about 440 million years ago at the start of the Silurian period.

“Circulation collapse would have been a death sentence for anything that could not swim closer to the surface and the life-giving oxygen still present in the atmosphere,” Ridgwell said. Creatures of the deep include bizarre-looking fish, giant worms and crustaceans, squid, sponges, and more.

The paper does not address if or when Earth might expect a similar event in the future. In fact, it is difficult to identify when a collapse might occur, or what triggers it. However, existing climate models confirm that increasing global warming will weaken ocean circulation, and some models even predict an eventual collapse of the branch of circulation that starts in the North Atlantic.

“We’d need a higher resolution climate model to predict a mass extinction event,” Ridgwell said. “That said, we do already have concerns about water circulation in the North Atlantic today, and there is evidence that the flow of water to depth is declining.”

In theory, an unusually warm summer or the erosion of a cliff could trigger a cascade of processes that upends life as it appears today, Ridgwell said.

“You’d think the surface of the ocean, the bit you might surf or sail on, is where all the action is. But underneath, the ocean is tirelessly working away, providing vital oxygen to animals in the dark depths,” Ridgwell said.

“The ocean allows life to flourish, but it can take that life away again. Nothing rules that out as continental plates continue to move.”

Reference: “Continental configuration controls ocean oxygenation during the Phanerozoic” by Alexandre Pohl, Andy Ridgwell, Richard G. Stockey, Christophe Thomazo, Andrew Keane, Emmanuelle Vennin and Christopher R. Scotese, 17 August 2022, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05018-z

27 Comments on "Surprise Discovery: Sleeping Giant Could End Deep Ocean Life"

  1. Predictable “news” from Google, in lockstep with what they are told to “inform” us of.

  2. George didn’t read the article

  3. If you’ve spent years obtaining finance for your project and then doing the work, there must be a strong bias towards discovering ‘surprising’ game changing results? It’s understandable they want to gain more funding, but should continental drift really be considered as an important contributer to deep sea current weakening over the next few decades?

  4. Of course it always comes down to Global Warming. Scientists have sold their reputations when their research is beholding to politics. The fact that the earth has been warming up since the mini ice age is lost on them.

  5. Richard Barnhart | August 19, 2022 at 1:54 pm | Reply

    The writer is sure to author remarks of assumptions in the content of the article; Why? Lack of imperial data for factual conclusion. Most of this so called truth is based in men/women with years of assumptual education without solid conclusion circlular reasoning based on bits of imperial data and older educational men/women with years of assumptual education whom have written books.
    I am shocked that LIFTABLEtv would carry this hyperbole!

  6. The headline along with the image was a little misleading, but the actual article was fascinating, and I’m glad i read it. More people should be aware of this. Cool your jets, George!

  7. How much is it going to cost us to stop the continents from shifting???

  8. It’s such a disappointment to see how man has destroyed our planet. If we don’t step up to the plate and take control of our environment we are doomed.

  9. George please havd a little more self respect. It can be hard to be confident in a world where a lack of understanding of science and concepts that require a level of education one doesnt posess for sure. But theres no need to be so hard on oneself. You are so much more than disgusting clickbait. Maybe just try to stick with easier topics and appropriate wedsites like sesame street or truth social where youll likely find more of a shared hive mind mentality that makes you feel safe and secure.

  10. Ok, I might be wrong but doesn’t fish breath water? I mean the suffocate when brought out of the water because they can’t process the air, so …….

  11. Who’s George?

  12. Vi kommer utrota oss själva långt innan problemet artikeln tar upp…

  13. That’s lame.

  14. Wouldn’t global warming cause the ice caps to melt which will raise sea levels? As well, would the addition of the new water help with circulation? I feel as though we would have that happen before anothe big shift in the continent’s.

  15. This was extremely misleading the thumbnail was clickbait. I’m just being told things I already know. :[

  16. There is no one alive today for whom this will affect life on Earth as we know it. It will probably happen so far into the future this article and its author will be ver obscure, if remembered at all. More to the point: there is nothing to be done to prevent plate tectonics on Earth. Moving continents, regardless of how powerful we may feel, is a very unlikely option, even for learned scientists.
    What is an option, and what humans have always done, is explore and expand territory.
    Instead of lamenting the coming death of the ocean we need to go find habitable planets we can terriform. It is a complete waste of resources to look at preserving the ocean depth in anticipation of its destruction.
    It likely won’t be destroyed. Earth doesn’t “work” that way.

  17. The hydroplate theory helps explain many geological phenomenon we still don’t fully understand, but many won’t dare touch the theory because of its relation to Religious texts. Not only would it corroborate many accounts told from cultures throughout the world, it would resoundly change our understanding of how the earth functions.

  18. Interesting information. Some of the comments are hilarious. Danielle: Fish breathes oxygen as water passes through their gills. Some must come to waters surface to breathe, such as Whales.
    This article is informational, there is nothing we can do to stop the tectonic plates from moving. We can do a few things to clean up our oceans. Stop dumping sewage and garbage into the oceans. The plastics I find along beaches is crazy. Humans are disgusting.

  19. Kolorless Cing | August 20, 2022 at 2:38 pm | Reply

    So what sleeping giant??? Frick off.

  20. Hahaha….. computer model.

    Something bad happened, it might happen again, give me more money to update my computer model. Or else more bad things happen.

  21. 1000% BS Nonsens.
    Dork “elites” think people still believe anything they put in the news. Goes to show – money does Not make you smart.

  22. Christopher Callen | August 21, 2022 at 2:34 pm | Reply

    “ OH WELL!…. The worst case will only happen, if and when It should. There’s only so much that Mankind and Nations can and will do. We’re not gods, despite our widespread Self-Worship. ”

  23. Imperial data😭😭😭😭

  24. The idea that continental position affects ocean circulation isn’t so novel. Years ago I read somewhere that Earth formerly had a globe-girdling warm current, flowing east to west IIRC,that failed when the Americas came together.

  25. Maybe it helped evolution??? The world has survived for millennia, it will continue to do so, with or without us…..

  26. What a load of trash science and pure conjecture!

  27. When I was a lil kid I was terrified of Killer Bee’s moving north to kill everyone and also Quicksand to finish off the few of us escaping, that the Bee’s had missed…and now we have this to add in to the mix and basically we have NO chance and the sooner we accept that it’s hopeless, the sooner we can all quit our jobs and spend the rest of our time with our loved ones on a beach with Mai Tai’s & Budweisers….if we’re screwed, I’d rather be screwed with a smile & a buzz…..🤷🏻‍♂️🥳

Leave a Reply to Gik Cancel reply

Email address is optional. If provided, your email will not be published or shared.