Biological Production of the Arctic Seas of Russia

Abstract

In the global carbon cycle of the biosphere, photosynthesis in the ocean occupies the most important place. It accomplishes the conversion of carbon from the mineral to organic form and provides the energy for the subsequent heterotrophic levels of the existence of life. Using carbon dioxide (its hydrocarbonate forms) as the main initial component, it shows itself as a powerful factor damping the consequences of the growth in the CO₂ content in the atmosphere and the greenhouse effect. Greater than four billion years ago, precisely the photosynthesis of unicellular algae in the ocean initiated transformation of the non-oxygen atmosphere of the Earth into the present-day atmosphere with a low content of CO₂ and a high content of oxygen (Yanshin 1997).