Mayer quoted in Eos article on study of what keeps oxygen in air
Lawrence Mayer, a biogeochemist in the University of Maine School of Marine Sciences, was quoted in an Eos article about a new study of what keeps oxygen in the air. According to the article, microbes take oxygen from the air when they help dead plants decay, to the extent that if all organic matter from dead organisms rotted, the atmosphere would contain very little oxygen. “It’s a long-standing question that has been debated for many years now,” said Mayer, referring to the question of what is keeping microbes from consuming the organic carbon in Earth’s rock record, and oxygen along with it. Some answers might be found in new research led by Jordon Hemingway at Harvard University. His two hypotheses offer the explanation that either organic carbon molecules in dead things are hard for microbes to break down, or that minerals “jail” organic molecules with chemical bonds and protect them from microbes, according to Eos. Hemingway’s research team found evidence supporting the “jail” hypothesis, or mineral protection hypothesis, which could have implications for understanding the past. “I think it’s a big breakthrough,” said Mayer, who was not involved in the study. “We know that early on you didn’t have oxygen, and then you had it. Did mineral protection arise at some time?”