Talk:Oxygen cycle

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Why no hydrosphere? Just wondering why the overview paragraph and the image make no reference to the hydrosphere. Surely this is a significant resevoir for oxygen given that there is dissolved O2 and CO2 and there is H2O itself. - Drstuey 07:28, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Answer: I decided not to differentiate between the hydrosphere and biosphere, mainly because I didn't have enough info to break down the biosphere reservoir into land surface and hydrosphere components. Also, dissolved O2 levels in the hydrosphere are a function of biologic activity. For an interesting theory on the relationship between the evolution of photosynthetic life, dissolved oxygen in the oceans, and the worlds main commercial source of iron, check out the banded iron formation. - Cbusch01 14:46, 13 Jul 2005 (MST)

Watson/Lenton

As I am researching the subject of what regulates the oxygen content of the atmosphere, I have found the works of professor Watson and dr Lenton at East Anglia University ( see here: http://www.uea.ac.uk/~ajw/pubs.htm , particular the pieces that have Redfield Revisited in their title). It is not easy stuff (as I am but a humble journalist), but what I have understood so far is that the oxygen production by photosynthesis is a netto neutral affair, in that all the oxygen produced by trees shrubs and plankton is consumed by the breakdown of these organisms. So there must be other oxygen sources and if I understand Watson/Lenton well then one of these sources is the chemical weathering of rocks by plantroots that releases oxygen in the atmosphere and the burial of marine life in geologic time that once produced oxygen but which was buried without reclaiming the produced oxygen back. Bu~t I would be very happy to see on the Wiki page how you interpret this. Thanks

Theo Richel (www.richel.org/resume) 82.176.201.176 09:52, 30 November 2006 (UTC)