Scientists concerned after finding high levels of B12 in Bay of Bengal

Panaji: A new study by the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, and the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Ghaziabad, has found that the Bay of Bengal has high levels of a special nutrient called vitamin B12, which is important for the health of living things in the ocean.This discovery is part of a larger study that looked at the behaviour of cobalt (Co) in the waters of the Indian Ocean.“Due to the intricate internal cycling of dissolved cobalt with dissolved oxygen, the changing global climate and ocean deoxygenation will critically affect the dissolved cobalt reservoir in the water column,” the study by Sunil Kumar Singh and Nirmalya Malla states.Cobalt is an important part of vitamin B12, and understanding its levels can help scientists learn more about the ocean’s health as well as its food chains.The study showed that the levels of cobalt in the Bay of Bengal are much higher compared to other parts of the Indian Ocean, especially in the northern part of the bay. The researchers found that cobalt concentrations in the Bay of Bengal’s coastal waters were about 0.11 nmol L⁻¹, and this decreases as one moves southward in the bay.One of the things that happens when the ocean loses oxygen is that it causes the release of cobalt (a substance that’s important for ocean life) into the water.

In the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, the warmer water and less oxygen could mean even more cobalt gets released. Scientists predict that cobalt levels will increase in the next few years due to these changes.In the Bay of Bengal, for example, they expect cobalt to increase by a small amount every decade. In the Arabian Sea, they expect a bigger increase. This could be bad news for the ocean’s health because too much cobalt could cause problems for marine life and the environment.Overall, scientists are worried that the warming oceans will make the oxygen minimum zones in the Indian Ocean even worse, which will lead to more cobalt in the water. This shows that global warming is not only affecting the temperature of the oceans but also the balance of important nutrients like cobalt, which can change how life in the ocean grows and survives.This high concentration of cobalt in the Bay of Bengal is linked to several factors.

One of the main reasons is the large amount of river water and dust from the atmosphere that flows into the bay, bringing cobalt with them. The study also found that the higher amounts of cobalt in the northern Bay of Bengal mask other signals, like nitrite, which is another important substance for ocean life. In the Arabian Sea, the situation is different, as cobalt is absorbed and used by marine life, but in the Bay of Bengal, it mostly stays in the water due to a process called “scavenging”.Scientists also looked at how this nutrient behaves in different parts of the Indian Ocean, like the Arabian Sea and the southern Indian Ocean. In some areas, the cobalt levels were low because the water was being used by marine plants and animals, while in other parts, like the Bay of Bengal, there was less biological activity, meaning more cobalt remained in the water.“This study is important because it helps scientists understand how the ocean’s nutrients and living creatures are connected. It also shows how different areas of the ocean react differently to natural processes and how these processes could be affected by future climate changes,” states the study published in ‘Spatial Variability of Dissolved Cobalt in the Indian Ocean Waters: Contrasting Behaviour in the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Southern Sector of the Indian Ocean’.