All forms of life on the planet have their own important functions to maintain ecosystems and biodiversity, just as in any branched individual organism, all organs and cells perform certain functions to maintain life. If there is a malfunction, such as in a person suffering from an autoimmune disease, the immune system’s regulatory cells (T-killers) begin to mistakenly attack other healthy cells. Ultimately, this destroys the full functionality of the body and, at best, the person is forced to live with a disability.
Likewise, our planet is a single living organism, and the consequences of humanity’s anthropogenic activities have caused the same disruption, when individual elements in different biomes no longer work as parts of a common food chain, but vice versa.
About 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by marine ecosystems. Byestimates According to marine biologists, the biomass of microorganisms is about 90% of the total mass of marine life. The number of microbial cells in the marine environment exceeds 10²⁹. By fixing carbon and nitrogen, i.e. absorbing them, and remineralizing organic matter, they form the basis of the food chain. Carbon sequestration and burial in marine sediments remains a key mechanism for the long-term reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Marine phytoplankton absorb half of all the carbon that is sequestered from atmospheric carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, about 5×10¹⁰ tons of carbon per year, and release half of the total oxygen returned to the atmosphere. And this is although the total biomass of this phytoplankton is only 1% of the total biomass of plants.
Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and rising temperatures lead to heating of seawater, decreasing its density, and causing stratification and acidification, which directly affects mixing and vertical and thermohaline regulation
There is constant mixing between ocean basins, which reduces the difference between them and connects the Earth’s oceans into a global system. As the water masses move, they constantly transfer both energy (in the form of heat) and matter (particles, dissolved substances, and gases), so the thermohaline circulation has a significant impact on the Earth’s climate.. All of this reduces the amount of nutrients that rise from the depths to the upper layers and reduces the efficiency of carbon sequestration by microorganisms.
Over the past half century, the amount of water in the open ocean with zero oxygen has increased by more than 4 times. Since the middle of the twentieth century, the number of areas with low oxygen concentration in coastal areas has increased more than 10 times.
Scientists expect that as global temperatures continue to rise, oxygen levels in these waters will continue to fall. Even a slight drop in oxygen levels in water slows the growth of marine life and leads to the degradation of microorganisms that absorb carbon and nitrogen. In the absence of oxygen, the concentration of nitric oxide in water can increase, which can affect the global heat balance 300 times more than carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. Heating of surface waters makes it harder for oxygen to reach the ocean depths and also reduces the level of oxygen that is already in the water.
Warm water accelerates the metabolism of marine life and they begin to require more oxygen. In coastal waters, the discharge of industrial and domestic waste creates excessive levels of nutrient pollution, which in turn leads to algae blooms, which also consume oxygen during decomposition.
The most common nutrients that cause algae blooms are nitrogen and phosphorus, which, in addition to being naturally released from rivers and streams, are also released into the seas and oceans through untreated water discharges and agricultural activities.
In recent decades, there have been increasing reports of so-called red tides, caused by the massive growth of microscopic algae that give the water a reddish and sometimes dark brown hue.
Dinophyte and diatoms are mainly responsible for this. Under conditions of high-temperature and excessive nutrients, they multiply rapidly and form a dense layer on the water surface, blocking sunlight and preventing other plants and microorganisms from carrying out their vital photosynthesis. By dying and decomposing, they also consume large amounts of oxygen from the water, which contributes to the expansion of oxygen minimum zones. In such zones, marine life cannot exist due to insufficient oxygen levels in the water.
But besides this, these algae are also toxic. The toxins they produce accumulate in the tissues of mollusks, fish, and other marine animals, and then can be ingested by humans as food, causing a range of illnesses, from gastrointestinal disorders to serious neurological disorders.
But you don’t have to look far, in recent years, red tides have become a common occurrence in the Black Sea, for example, off the coast of Odesa. The last red tide was recorded here in September 2024, and one of the largest in the area occurred in 2020.
Prosinformation According to local ecologist Vladyslav Balinsky, the red tide in September 2024 was caused by the photosynthetic dinophyte algae Lingylodinium polyedra. They made the water unsafe for swimming due to the possible risk of allergic reactions and made it impossible to consume seafood due to the threat of poisoning.
The ecologist called desalination and contamination of water with biogens the cause of the algae.
Dinophyte algae toxins can also enter the human body from the air, causing respiratory damage, memory impairment, toxic brain damage, and in the case of paralytic poisoning, death.
Another dangerous phenomenon is the global spread of cyanobacteria or blue-green algae. Currently, at least 50 species of toxic cyanobacteria are known to exist. The development of their adaptive mechanisms allows these microorganisms to exist in almost any environment. They can be found in freshwater bodies, as well as in slightly salty and brackish water from the tropics to the Antarctic belt. They are capable of producing hepatotoxins, neurotoxins, cytotoxins, and dermatotoxins that are dangerous to both animals and humans. Their massive spread leads to the death of aquatic ecosystems and a decrease in oxygen in the water, as the bloom of these algae also blocks the passage of sunlight.
Cyanobacteria blooms occur mainly when the water temperature reaches 20-25 C⁰. At the same time, some species of cyanobacteria are able to reproduce and bloom even in cold water and in lakes covered with ice.
As a result of global warming and rising temperatures in aquatic ecosystems, Cylindrospermopsis and Raphidiopsis raciborskii species, which are typical inhabitants of subtropical regions, have been found in lakes in Europe. In addition, due to the presence of photoprotective pigments (carotenoids) and UV-absorbing components (mycosporin-like amino acids), cyanobacteria remain viable even at extremely high levels of radiation.
Global warming and frequent climate fluctuations are increasing the duration of rainy and drought seasons. In particular, droughts increase the salinity of water in lakes and rivers. Rising average annual temperatures can not only promote the growth of cyanobacteria, but also affect the formation of toxins. Moreover, even non-toxic cyanobacteria can begin to synthesize toxins with rising temperatures. The high activity and spread of cyanobacteria is also affected by ice melt.
An important source of nutrients for the rapid development of cyanobacteria is also nitrogen and phosphorus, which enter surface waters from the soil as a result of agricultural activities.
The global spread of toxic cyanobacteria poses the most serious threat to the environment. In freshwater bodies, about 70% of cyanobacteria are toxic.
Depending on the specific group of cyanobacterial toxins, these dangerous substances can cause necrotic damage to internal organs — liver, kidneys, spleen, lungs, intestines, inflammation, and irritation of the gastrointestinal tract.
In the case of massive blooms, cyanobacteria can cause skin redness, itching or rashes, asthma attacks, irritation of the eye mucosa, and rashes and blisters on the face and other parts of the body.
Blue-green algae release their toxins and air, which can lead to lung failure and suffocation.
In addition, cyanobacteria synthesize metabolites that worsen the taste and odor of water.
Laboratory and field observations of anthropogenic pollution of natural waters show that the combination of increased temperature and increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere creates very favorable conditions for the dominance of cyanobacteria in various ecosystems.
Granular activated carbon removes cyanotoxins from water and eliminates the problem of taste and odor. Reverse osmosis, nanofiltration and ultrafiltration remove cyanobacteria from water and cyanotoxins. Chlorination eliminates cyanobacteria but does not eliminate cyanotoxins.
The most reliable method of dealing with cyanobacteria in domestic water treatment is ultraviolet irradiation, with cyanotoxins — filtration of water through an activated carbon layer.
How toit is noted According to the UNESCO report «State of the World’s Oceans in 2024», over the past 20 years, global ocean warming has doubled. In particular, in 2023, one of the highest temperature increases since the 1950s was recorded.
The Mediterranean Sea, the tropical Atlantic Ocean, and the Southern Oceans have clear areas of warming above 2°C.
Since the 1960s, the ocean has already lost 2% of its oxygen due to rising temperatures and pollution from sewage and agricultural discharges. About 500 dead zones have been identified, with almost no marine life left due to low oxygen levels.
Coastal waters experience sharp fluctuations from high to low levels of acidification, leading to mass extinction of younger generations of animals and plants that are not sufficiently adapted to survive.
The myth that cows «fart» warming
I remember that when I first heard that cows and other ruminants, which produce methane in the course of their lives, are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the transportation sector, it somehow did not fit in my head. It is clear that the context is somewhat more complicated than this primitive statement. Of course, if we consider the global volume of livestock production, including meat processing, feed production, deforestation for pasture, and so on, there will be a contribution to atmospheric heating.
Ruminants are distinguished by the fact that their stomachs have 4 compartments instead of just one. The largest of these compartments, called the rumen, serves as a refuge for anaerobic microorganisms called methanogenic archaea. These are the only known organisms capable of producing methane.
Methane is one of the key greenhouse gases that can trap heat 30 times more effectively than carbon dioxide. On average, it does not persist in the atmosphere for more than 8-12 years, but after that, methane forms water vapor and carbon dioxide. Methane’s contribution to the greenhouse effect evaluated somewhere between 4 and 9%. Compared to the pre-industrial era, its concentration in the atmosphere has more than doubled. The highest level of methane was observed in 21.20.2020 and amounted to 15-18 parts per billion.
In the stomach of ruminants, microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, help digest food. This fermentation produces hydrogen and carbon dioxide, which are used by metagonistic archaea to produce methane.
Around one cow produces 70 to 120 kg of methane per year. In total, all cattle in the world release an amount of methane equivalent to 3.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Currently, developed countries, such as the United States and Europe, are actively using special additives in ruminant feed to reduce methane emissions. Among the most common are 3-nitroxypropanol, Asparagopsis algae, and nitrates, which reduce methane emissions by more than 10%.
In Switzerland, Agolin produces a product made from cloves, wild carrots and coriander seeds that is simply mixed with mineral feed and fed to cows.
According to Beatrice Zweifel, Agolin’s technical manager, this supplement is already included in the diet of every twentieth cow in the EU.
According to the results of tests in the US, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, it has demonstrated the ability to reduce methane emissions by 10-20%.
However, if only cows and other livestock were the problem. Rice fields, manure, and permafrost melting are no less important sources of methane archaea and their increased methane emissions.
Initially, marshes formed as a result of permafrost melt are dominated by hydrogenotrophic methanogens that produce methane from hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Later, as the diverse populations of these microorganisms grow, acetoclastic methanogens, which use acetate to produce methane, begin to dominate. This is a more efficient way of producing methane, which leads to its increase in the atmosphere.
Reactions involving methane affect the chemical composition of the atmosphere, in particular the concentration of ozone in the troposphere and stratosphere. This is the indirect impact of methane on the Earth’s climate.
According to current estimates, warming by 1.5 — 2 °C (compared to the average surface temperature of 00.19.1850) will reduce the area of permafrost by 28-53% and release the carbon buried there for microorganisms. This, in turn, will increase the release of carbon and methane into the atmosphere by these microbes.
Thawing permafrost expands the area occupied by hydromorphic soils, which contributes to the flow of methane produced by anaerobic methanogens and carbon dioxide produced by various microorganisms into the atmosphere.
By the end of the century, carbon emissions from anaerobic habitats are expected to be a greater driver of climate change than those from aerobic habitats.
Rice is the source of food for half of the world’s population, and rice plantations
generate about 20% of all methane emitted from agricultural production, occupying only 10% of arable land. By the end of the century, anthropogenic climate change is expected to double methane emissions from rice production.
As we go forward, all the processes described in this article will become more and more widespread and threatening. However, this is not a question of giving up on something or putting an end to some areas of human activity. In my opinion, humanity must carefully optimize its activities, primarily in the interests of its own security. For now, as long as the concepts of industry and economic expediency prevail over common sense, we seem to be rushing in a mad train to the edge of the abyss with no one to put on the brakes. If no one does, nature itself will apply the brakes, and it will do so in its signature style — ruthlessly.
