Re: Does most of our oxygen come from plants, or phytoplankton?

Date: Thu Dec 3 11:19:46 1998
Posted By: Karen Culver-Rymsza, Biological Oceanographer
Area of science: Earth Sciences
ID: 911532152.Es

Message:


Dear James,

Current estimates indicate that half (or a little more) of the oxygen in 
Earth's atmosphere is produced by phytoplankton. This has not always been 
the case. In the early history of the Earth essentially all the atmospheric 
oxygen was produced by eukaryotic phytoplankton and cyanobacteria. Plants 
had not yet invaded the terrestrial environment --that came much later. 

Dr. K. Culver-Rymsza

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