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Earth’s wobble and how it effects life in the oceans

17 September 2013
Biology

At http://phys.org/print298346381.html … research at Princetown University and the Swiss Institution of Technology in Zurich have discovered the wobble of the Earth on its axis controls the population of fertilising nitrogen connected to life in the oceans. The wobble, or axial precession, causes an upwelling of bottom water and this is rich in phosphorous, among other things. This occurs at 23,000 year intervals – in a mainstream perspective. Blue green algae feed on the phosphorous and fix nitrogen to the air (Centre for Microbial Oceanography, University of Hawaii, and a paper in Nature). The ocean appears to regulate its own life support system which in turn affects the Earth's climate and the size of marine fisheries – by upwelling of bottom water. Scientists suggest this implies nitrogen is resilient and the oceans are capable of rejuvenating itself after even the most dramatic ecological changes.

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