Oxygen is decreasing in sea water!

The Dhaka Times Desk Oxygen levels in seawater worldwide have dropped by more than two percent. This happened after the sixties of the last century.

Although the percentage may seem low, the entire marine biodiversity, including marine flora and fauna, is under potential threat. Marine scientists have given such a warning in a recent study published in the scientific journal Nature.

Research published in the journal Nature has revealed that oxygen levels in seawater are decreasing at an alarming rate. According to the data of that research, the amount of oxygen in the sea water of different regions has decreased in the last five and a half decades since the sixties. Water deficient in oxygen is called 'anoxic water'.

The amount of 'anoxic water' found in the ocean before the 1960s has quadrupled in the last five and a half decades. In addition, the amount of the highly potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide in seawater 'probably increased' during this time, the study also reported.

It is also said that about three-fourths of the earth is water. The ocean provides nearly half of the oxygen needed by the world's billions of people.

Dennis Gilbert, a researcher-scientist from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said in a comment in the Nature journal, 'Two percent may not sound like much. But it could also have a serious impact on marine ecosystems in areas of the ocean that are already low in oxygen,' he said.