Why does the oxygen level in the air doesn’t change dramatically, when most of the trees shed their leaves in the winter?
In: Earth Science
Trees do not produce the majority of the oxygen. 50-80% of all oxygen comes from the sea where it is mostly plankton that produces it. so 20-50% is land and there is lot of other plants than trees.
But even if they did you would not see a dramatic change because the amount of oxygen that is used is not very high compared to the amount in the atmosphere.
If no oxygen was produced and the amount of animal was like it is today (do not as ask me what they eat if there are no pants) the all oxygen in the atmosphere would be used up in 52 000 years. That also assumes that all oxygen can be used.
Let’s say winter is half a year so 1/100 000 of the oxygen would be used by animals
That is not the whole story of oxygen usage because it is used when nonanimals like fungus, bacteria break down biological matter.
So more oxygen is used than just by animals but those processes then get slower in the winter especially if it is below freezing.
The result is that there is a minimal change in oxygen level in winter vs summer we talk about 0.02 to 0.03 percent. I’m not sure the number is the percentage of the atmosphere or percentage of the average oxygen level but regardless it is not a lot.
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