[ELI5] TIL that algae produced about 60% of our planet’s oxygen. Is it possible then to have all of the trees gone and we would still be fine oxygen-wise?

Question

[ELI5] TIL that algae produced about 60% of our planet’s oxygen. Is it possible then to have all of the trees gone and we would still be fine oxygen-wise?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

In principle yes, we could get all our oxygen from algae. Though we might be fine oxygen-wise, we probably wouldn’t be fine everything-else-wise. A lot of food chains would collapse, and a lot of ecosystem re-balancing would have to happen, and we might quickly find that a lot of other stuff we depend on to survive would be hard to come by.