That is the equivalent weight of around 50 London Tower Bridges. They estimate it has resulted in around 4 million tonnes of organic carbon each year being locked into the seabed. 'Over Earth's long history, this may have helped create the conditions necessary for complex life to inhabit the Earth.'Īs part of the study, the scientists modelled how much organic carbon has been locked into the seabed because of the Maillard reaction. 'Our experiments have shown that in the presence of key elements, namely iron and manganese which are found in sea water, the rate of reaction is increased by tens of times. It limited the release of carbon dioxide, allowing more oxygen to reach the Earth's atmosphere and limited variation in the warming of the Earth's land surface over the last 400 million years to an average of about five degrees Celsius.ĭr Oliver Moore, first author in the study and a Research Fellow in Biogeochemistry in the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds, said: 'It had been suggested back in the 1970's that the Maillard reaction might occur in marine sediments, but the process was thought to be too slow to impact the conditions that exist on Earth. That long-term storage or preservation of organic carbon on the seabed had major consequences for conditions that developed on the surface of the Earth. The scientists describe this as the 'preservation of organic carbon.' Those larger molecules are harder for microorganisms to breakdown and remain stored in the sediment for tens of thousands - if not millions - of years. That decay process uses oxygen and releases carbon dioxide into the ocean which eventually ends up in the atmosphere.Īs a result of the Maillard reaction, the smaller molecules are converted into larger molecules. When those organisms die, they sink to the sea floor and are consumed by bacteria. Organic carbon in the oceans mostly comes from microscopic living organisms. In the kitchen, it is used to create flavours and aromas out of sugars.īut a research team led by Professor Caroline Peacock at the University of Leeds argues that on the sea floor, the process has had a more fundamental effect, where it has helped to raise oxygen and reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, to create the conditions for complex life forms to emerge and thrive on Earth. Known as the Maillard reaction after the French scientist who discovered it, the process converts small molecules of organic carbon into bigger molecules known as polymers.

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