Is the slowing up of earth's rotation a bane or a boon to us? I say boon! Let us now go into the details of how microbes produce better oxygen with longer hours of sunlight than otherwise. Extended Work Hours For Microbes To Produce And Raise The Oxygen Levels- When you think about the oxygen production for our planet, most of it is produced by the photosynthesis of cyanobacteria. They are not like the plants we have today in pots and gardens and can grow in the most inhabitable places. Instead, they are as old as 2.4 billion years old and were present right after the earth's formation. Geomicrobiologist Judit Klatt says it is tricky to assume why it took so long and what factors led to the oxygenation. However, experimenting with sheets of cyanobacteria gave a replica of how the conditions became habitable on the uninhabitable earth. Cyanobacteria Are Late Risers- While working with the team of researchers around Greg Dick (the place with an abundance of cyanobacteria), Klatt discovered that the water level in Middle Sinkhole that goes way deep had limited oxygen. As a result, the life underwater mainly was microbial and serves as a practical analogue for conditions that prevailed billions of years ago. The microbes are purple oxygen-producing cyanobacteria that react with white sulfur-oxidizing bacterias and generate energy. The survival of these microbes depends on their teamwork. The sulfur eating bacteria's move downwards, and cyanobacteria move up on the surface mat. They start the process of photosynthesis but are late risers. It is not till noon they get the job actually started. This makes the oxygen-producing time cramped. The length of a day being 24 hours and sun time as less as 6 hours makes the work even more challenging. Now that brings us to the point that earth rotational deceleration was interrupted and started to slow down 600 million years ago. Does it mean good news for the oxygen supply? Yes Sir! From Bacterias Mats To Global Producers Of Oxygen- Teaming up with Arjun Chennu, Klatt worked at the Max Planck Institute of Marine Microbiology and started to examine how sunlight dynamics link oxygen discharge from the mats. Sunlight rises and falls twice as short and puts the oxygen generation in lockstep. But the mats keep the show running due to the molecular diffusion. The subtle uncoupling release is what forms the heart of the mechanism.
