Influence of cosmic rays on environmental ecosystems

Abstract

It is presented a model to consider the effect of high energy cosmic rays on three types of terrestrial ecosystem: coastal macroalgae, lakes, and forests. The model includes insights into muon dosimetry based in the stopping power of muons while traveling in water and soft biological tissues. It is shown that a muon from secondary cosmic rays could deposit in cells an energy much higher than that deposited by ultraviolet photons coming from the Sun. Consequently, drastic short-term reductions of photosynthesis are obtained if energetic astrophysical phenomena such as gamma ray bursts and neutron star mergers happen in our astronomical neighborhood, while radiational solar storms also cause considerable inhibition of photosynthesis.