List of the Producers of Gases in the Earth's Atmosphere
When most people think of the air in Earth's atmosphere, they do not think of it as being composed of many different gases. In reality, the atmosphere is made up of many different gases in different quantities. There are many sources that produce these gases, with some producers varying their production over time and others staying mostly steady.
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Types
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Most of Earth's atmosphere is composed of nitrogen and oxygen gases. With 78 percent of the atmosphere nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen, only about 1 percent of the atmosphere consists of other gases. The main gases are water vapor, argon, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, neon, nitrogen oxides, methane and krypton. The quantities of water vapor in the atmosphere constantly vary, but the other gases remain fairly constant over time. Argon makes up the largest proportion of these trace gases, accounting for about 0.9 percent of the total atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the next most common, making up 0.04 percent of Earth's atmosphere.
Function
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Of the atmospheric gases, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapor play the most active roles in interacting with life on Earth's surface. As a result, these gases are in constant exchange between the atmosphere and the surface. Oxygen and carbon dioxide remain in gaseous form, while water vapor condenses into liquid water via clouds and rain. That liquid water, in turn, evaporates into the water vapor found in clouds and throughout the atmosphere.
Sources
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Nitrogen makes up most of the atmosphere and is one of its most stable components: Most nitrogen remains in gaseous form over time. A small amount does react with bacterial life, entering into Earth's surface. Nitrogen returns to the atmosphere via biomass combustion and through the biological conversion of nitrates into gases.
Oxygen arrives in the atmosphere mainly as the result of photosynthesis: Oxygen is the waste product of the conversion of carbon dioxide and water into glucose for plants. Water vapor results from the evaporation of liquid water, particularly from the oceans and rain forests.
Carbon dioxide results naturally from respiration of oxygen. Additional carbon dioxide comes from the burning of fossil fuels and from deforestation.
Methane is the result of agriculture, decomposition, fuel extraction and some biological processes. Trace gases like nitrous oxide and ozone also result from industrial processes and deforestation.
The other elements in the atmosphere remain roughly constant over time.
Considerations
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Overproduction of some gases, as a result of modern industrial and agricultural processes, has led to significant increases in some atmospheric gases. Carbon dioxide, for example, has increased in the atmosphere by about 35 percent over the past few centuries. In that same period of time, methane has increased by about 150 percent due to an increase in agricultural production, especially the expansion of rice fields. Nitrous oxide has increased by about 0.2 to 0.3 percent annually in recent years, mostly due to deforestation.
Effects
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In recent years, there has been much interest in the effects of atmospheric gases and in the producers of such gases. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide can be traced directly to the rise of industrialization and its attendant use of fossil fuels, while methane and nitrous oxide are both linked to the expansion of agriculture. These gases help to trap the heat of sunlight on Earth (a necessary function of the atmosphere), and there are concerns that the increase in gases will cause a catastrophic rise in Earth's temperature.
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- Photo Credit "Tehran Sky" is Copyrighted by Flickr user: Hamed Saber (Hamed Saber) under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
