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The breakdown of phytoplankton in the environment depends on the presence of oxygen, and once oxygen is no longer in the bodies of water, ligninperoxidases cannot continue to break down the lignin. When oxygen is not present in the water, the time required for breakdown of phytoplankton changes from 10.7 days to a total of 160 days.
Marine phytoplankton mostly inhabit sunlit surface waters as photoautotrophs, and require nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, as well as sunlight to fix carbon and produce oxygen. However, some marine phytoplankton inhabit the deep sea, often near deep sea vents, as chemoautotrophs which use inorganic electron sources such as hydrogen ...
Phytoplankton form the base of marine and freshwater food webs and are key players in the global carbon cycle. They account for about half of global photosynthetic activity and at least half of the oxygen production, despite amounting to only about 1% of the global plant biomass.
It has been estimated that half of the world's oxygen is produced by phytoplankton. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Larger autotrophs, such as the seagrasses and macroalgae ( seaweeds ) are generally confined to the littoral zone and adjacent shallow waters, where they can attach to the underlying substrate but still be within the photic zone .
Plankton have many direct and indirect effects on humans. Around 70% of the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced in the oceans from phytoplankton performing photosynthesis, meaning that the majority of the oxygen available for us and other organisms that respire aerobically is produced by plankton. [71]
Without supplies of fixed nitrogen entering the marine cycle, the fixed nitrogen would be used up in about 2000 years. [83] Phytoplankton need nitrogen in biologically available forms for the initial synthesis of organic matter. Ammonia and urea are released into the water by excretion from plankton.
In OMZs oxygen concentration drops to levels <10 nM at the base of the oxycline and can remain anoxic for over 700 m depth. [7] This lack of oxygen can be reinforced or increased due to physical processes changing oxygen supply such as eddy-driven advection, [7] sluggish ventilation, [8] increases in ocean stratification, and increases in ocean temperature which reduces oxygen solubility.
Ancestors of Prochlorococcus contributed to the production of early atmospheric oxygen. [26] Despite Prochlorococcus being one of the smallest types of marine phytoplankton in the world's oceans, its substantial number make it responsible for a major part of the oceans', world's photosynthesis, and oxygen production. [2]