Grass alone produces enough oxygen for life
Earth's oxygen production and carbon cycling rely on a vast diversity of marine phytoplankton, forests, and varied terrestrial ecosystems, meaning grass alone does not produce enough oxygen to sustain global life.
The claim is empirically false and fails to account for the primary global oxygen sources, notably marine phytoplankton and diverse forests. The provided literature on global carbon and biogeochemical budgets confirms that planetary systems depend on complex interactions across multiple biomes, refuting the idea that grass alone drives global life support.
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O’Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Judith Hauck, Are Olsen, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Stephen Sitch, Corinne Le Quéré, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Simone R. Alin, Luiz E. O. C. Aragão, Almut Arneth, Vivek Arora, Nicholas R. Bates, Meike Becker, Alice Benoit-Cattin, Henry C. Bittig, Laurent Bopp, Selma Bultan, Naveen Chandra, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise Chini, Wiley Evans, Liesbeth Florentie, Piers Forster, Thomas Gasser, Marion Gehlen, Dennis Gilfillan, Thanos Gkritzalis, Luke Gregor, Nicolas Gruber, Ian Harris, Kerstin Hartung, Vanessa Haverd, R. A. Houghton, Tatiana Ilyina, Atul K. Jain, Émilie Joetzjer, Koji Kadono, Etsushi Kato, Vassilis Kitidis, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Peter Landschützer, Nathalie Lefèvre, Andrew Lenton, Sebastian Lienert, Zhu Liu, Danica Lombardozzi, Gregg Marland, Nicolas Metzl, David R. Munro, Julia E. M. S. Nabel, Shin‐Ichiro Nakaoka, Yosuke Niwa, Kevin O’Brien, Tsuneo Ono, Paul I. Palmer, Denis Pierrot, Benjamin Poulter, Laure Resplandy, Eddy Robertson, Christian Rödenbeck, Jörg Schwinger, Roland Séférian, Ingunn Skjelvan, Adam J. P. Smith, Adrienne J. Sutton, Toste Tanhua, Pieter P. Tans, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Guido R. van der Werf, Nicolas Vuichard, Anthony P. Walker, Rik Wanninkhof, Andrew Watson, David Willis, A. Wiltshire, Wenping Yuan, Xu Yue, Sönke Zaehle. Global Carbon Budget 2020. 2020. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3269-2020
Friedlingstein et al. (2020) demonstrate that the global terrestrial carbon sink is distributed across diverse vegetation types and oceans, showing that no single plant group alone sustains global atmospheric oxygen and carbon balances.
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Pierre Friedlingstein, Matthew W. Jones, Michael O’Sullivan, Robbie M. Andrew, Judith Hauck, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Stephen Sitch, Corinne Le Quéré, Dorothée C. E. Bakker, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Peter Anthoni, Leticia Barbero, Ana Bastos, Vladislav Bastrikov, Meike Becker, Laurent Bopp, Erik T. Buitenhuis, Naveen Chandra, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise Chini, Kim Currie, Richard A. Feely, Marion Gehlen, Dennis Gilfillan, Thanos Gkritzalis, Daniel S. Goll, Nicolas Gruber, Sören Gutekunst, Ian Harris, Vanessa Haverd, R. A. Houghton, G. C. Hurtt, Tatiana Ilyina, Atul K. Jain, Émilie Joetzjer, Jed O. Kaplan, Etsushi Kato, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Peter Landschützer, Siv K. Lauvset, Nathalie Lefèvre, Andrew Lenton, Sebastian Lienert, Danica Lombardozzi, Gregg Marland, Patrick McGuire, Joe R. Melton, Nicolas Metzl, David R. Munro, Julia E. M. S. Nabel, Shin‐Ichiro Nakaoka, Craig Neill, Abdirahman M Omar, Tsuneo Ono, Anna Peregon, Denis Pierrot, Benjamin Poulter, Gregor Rehder, Laure Resplandy, Eddy Robertson, Christian Rödenbeck, Roland Séférian, Jörg Schwinger, Naomi Smith, Pieter P. Tans, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Francesco N. Tubiello, Guido R. van der Werf, A. Wiltshire, Sönke Zaehle. Global Carbon Budget 2019. 2019. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1783-2019
Friedlingstein et al. (2019) quantify complex multi-component global carbon and oxygen budgets involving diverse global ecosystems, contradicting the notion that grass alone suffices for planetary life support.
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O’Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Dorothée C. E. Bakker, Judith Hauck, Peter Landschützer, Corinne Le Quéré, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Clemens Schwingshackl, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Simone R. Alin, Peter Anthoni, Leticia Barbero, Nicholas R. Bates, Meike Becker, Nicolas Bellouin, Bertrand Decharme, Laurent Bopp, Ida Bagus Mandhara Brasika, Patricia Cadule, Matthew A. Chamberlain, Naveen Chandra, Thi Tuyet Trang Chau, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise Chini, Margot Cronin, Xinyu Dou, Kazutaka Enyo, Wiley Evans, Stefanie Falk, Richard A. Feely, Liang Feng, Daniel J. Ford, Thomas Gasser, Joséfine Ghattas, Thanos Gkritzalis, Giacomo Grassi, Luke Gregor, Nicolas Gruber, Özgür Gürses, Ian Harris, Matthew Hefner, Jens Heinke, R. A. Houghton, G. C. Hurtt, Yosuke Iida, Tatiana Ilyina, A. R. Jacobson, Atul K. Jain, Tereza Jarníková, Annika Jersild, Fei Jiang, Zhe Jin, Fortunat Joos, Etsushi Kato, Ralph F. Keeling, Daniel Kennedy, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jürgen Knauer, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Arne Körtzinger, Xin Lan, Nathalie Lefèvre, Hongmei Li, Junjie Liu, Zhiqiang Liu, Lei Ma, G. Marland, Nicolas Mayot, Patrick McGuire, Galen A. McKinley, Gesa Meyer, Eric J. Morgan, David R. Munro, Shin‐Ichiro Nakaoka, Yosuke Niwa, Kevin M. O'Brien, Are Olsen, Abdirahman M Omar, Tsuneo Ono, Melf Paulsen, Denis Pierrot, Katie Pocock, Benjamin Poulter, Carter M. Powis, Gregor Rehder, Laure Resplandy, Eddy Robertson, Christian Rödenbeck, Thais M. Rosan, Jörg Schwinger, Roland Séférian, T. Luke Smallman. Global Carbon Budget 2023. 2023. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5301-2023
Friedlingstein et al. (2023) emphasize that planetary-scale biogeochemical cycles depend on a broad mosaic of marine and terrestrial biomes rather than any single plant family.
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