Would the ozone layer persist, or would it cease to be (and how quickly?), if Earth's entire biome -- animal, plant, bacteria, both terrestrial and aquatic -- suddenly disappeared?

1 Answer
May 21, 2017

The ozone layer would likely persist indefinitely because its generation and maintenance are not connected to the existence of plants or animals.

Explanation:

That is really simply positing a different planetary environment. The rapid removal of ALL of existing biomes is unlikely, short of planetary disintegration. However, as a thought experiment of the effect of planetary life on the upper atmosphere composition it may identify some linkages that could be significant.

The fundamental question is whether the existence of the ozone layer is dependent on life forms on the surface/oceans. We know that man-made compounds can deplete the amount of ozone, but is life responsible for creating and maintaining it?

Ozone is created in the upper atmosphere by solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. A good short video is here:

A detailed discussion of the mechanism is here: http://www.columbia.edu/itc/chemistry/chem-c2407/hw/ozone_kinetics.pdf

This presentation explains how tropospheric ozone is generated by UV radiation, #NO_2# and #O_2#:
http://www.mao.kiev.ua/lao/presentation/staehelin_Ozone%20in%20Troposphere_Kiev%20SSch08.pdf

So, as long as #NO_2# and #O_2# remain in the atmosphere, the ozone layer will remain. Without animal or plant respiration, neither oxygen nor carbon dioxide levels are likely to change.