The Black Sea’s toxic underside is approaching the surface, new research finds.
Comparing measurements collected from 1955 through 2013, researchers discovered that the sea’s oxygen-rich top layer shrank by more than a third from 140 meters to 90 meters deep. That oxygenated layer supports a marine ecosystem and separates the atmosphere from the world’s largest reservoir of poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas.
The oxygen reduction probably resulted from rising regional temperatures and increased nutrient supplies, the researchers report October 2 in Biogeosciences Discussions. While a catastrophic release of hydrogen sulfide remains unlikely, “it’s not science fiction,”says study coauthor Arthur Capet, an oceanographer at the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics in Trieste, Italy.
Comparing measurements collected from 1955 through 2013, researchers discovered that the sea’s oxygen-rich top layer shrank by more than a third from 140 meters to 90 meters deep. That oxygenated layer supports a marine ecosystem and separates the atmosphere from the world’s largest reservoir of poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas.
The oxygen reduction probably resulted from rising regional temperatures and increased nutrient supplies, the researchers report October 2 in Biogeosciences Discussions. While a catastrophic release of hydrogen sulfide remains unlikely, “it’s not science fiction,”says study coauthor Arthur Capet, an oceanographer at the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics in Trieste, Italy.
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