Can tiny ocean organisms offer the key to better climate modeling?
In the shadowy layers of the Pacific, microbes decide how much nitrous oxide—a potent greenhouse gas—rises skyward. New research from Penn’s Xin Sun offers an improved understanding of microbial ecology and geochemistry—key to forecasting global emissions in response to natural and man-made climate change.
In the cobalt waters off San Diego, the key to tracking a powerful greenhouse gas drifts just below the surface.
Tiny ocean microbes living in oxygen-starved waters turn everyday nutrients into nitrous oxide (N₂O)—a compound better known as laughing gas, but far less funny for the planet.
“The gas traps roughly 300 times more heat than carbon dioxide (CO₂) and also eats away at Earth’s ozone layer,” says Xin Sun, assistant professor of biology at Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences. “Having better information on where and how N₂Os are made can help scientists forecast global emissions more accurately as the climate changes.”
Read more at Penn Today.