"Sound the alarm" at discovering a large puddle of sugar in the oceans

Shafaq News/ Scientists from the Max Planck Institute have raised the alarm because large amounts of sugar have been discovered in the oceans.

Seaweed, a marine flowering plant found in many coastal areas of the world, may be responsible for this phenomenon. These species also play an essential role in the marine atmosphere as one of Earth's most efficient carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

According to the study, one square kilometer of seaweed stores nearly twice as much carbon as terrestrial forests and does so 35 times faster.

This makes seaweed an essential resource for reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

In this new study, researchers discovered that an ample supply of sugar was a cause for concern.

"Sugar is often part of the normal process of photosynthesis. These plants use most of the sugar they make for their growth," said Nicole Dobellier, institute director. But in high light conditions, such as noon or summer, plants produce more sugar than they can eat."

This excess sugar is stored and then stored in the soil to be released into the roots' root zone.

In hot weather, these roots are filled with high concentrations of sugar.

"Worldwide, there is an estimated 0.6 to 1.3 million tons of sugar in the root zone of seaweeds," said Manuel Liebeck, head of the Metabolic Interactions Research Group at the institute.

That's the equivalent of about 32 billion cans of soda, and this rooted sheath is home to many sugar-loving bacteria and other microorganisms like humans.

Sugars are easily digested and quickly digested by bacteria and converted to carbon dioxide for these microbes.

Seaweeds interfere with this process by releasing phenol into their sediments to prevent carbon dioxide production.

Phenols, a type of chemical compound produced by plants, are found in everyday food, but they also have an additional function as an antimicrobial.

In the study, the researchers found that preventing microorganisms from digesting the sugars found in seaweed prevented the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide into the ocean.

Seaweeds are among the most endangered habitats on our planet, and if they disappear, researchers warn that astronomical amounts of carbon dioxide and sugar will be released into the atmosphere.

Also, if not for the phenols released by seaweed to prevent germs from digesting sugar, more carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere.