what is the reason why oxygen levels in our country are declining
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Answer:
Why Are Oxygen Levels Declining?
As with most things on Earth, oxygen levels are controlled by complex global systems that tend to regulate and dampen large swings from the mean. This presents a difficult task to pinpoint why exactly oxygen levels have been declining for almost a million years. However, scientists have several hypotheses to explain the steady and persistent decline.
One potential hypothesis is that a global increase in erosion rates has led to a steady decline in free O2 within the atmosphere. In a process similar to iron rusting (where iron binds with oxygen during oxidation) weathering rocks can remove free oxygen from the atmosphere. Specifically, pyrite, also known as fool’s gold, and organic carbon are good receptors for oxygen during oxidation.
But what caused the increase in global erosion rates? The key is believed to lie in the rapid glacial to interglacial periods that dominate the past several million years. As seen in the figure below, the Earth has witnessed dramatic fluctuations in global temperature the past million years. Growth and retreat of continental ice sheets associated with glacial cycles is an incredibly efficient and large-scale mechanism to erode mountains. Note the red dots to the far right of the figure representing projected temperatures in 2050 and 2100, their historical significance, and unprecedented pace of increase.