Environmental control on microbial diversification and methane production in the Mesoarchean

Stüeken, Eva E.; Buick, Roger

doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2017.11.003

Cited by 31 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…Then, by 2.8 to 2.6 Ga ago, increasing concentrations and isotopic fractionation of Mo and S in marine shales suggest that O 2 proximal to cyanobacterial mats and stromatolites on land oxidized sulfides and boosted sulfate and Mo riverine fluxes to the oceans (70,80,(102)(103)(104). These trends are consistent with isotopic evidence for Neoarchean methanotrophy and oxidative nitrogen cycling (105)(106)(107)(108)(109).…”

Section: Archean Atmospheric Gasessupporting

confidence: 61%

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The Archean atmosphere

2020

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The atmosphere of the Archean eon—one-third of Earth’s history—is important for understanding the evolution of our planet and Earth-like exoplanets. New geological proxies combined with models constrain atmospheric composition. They imply surface O2 levels <10−6 times present, N2 levels that were similar to today or possibly a few times lower, and CO2 and CH4 levels ranging ~10 to 2500 and 102 to 104 times modern amounts, respectively. The greenhouse gas concentrations were sufficient to offset a fainter Sun. Climate moderation by the carbon cycle suggests average surface temperatures between 0° and 40°C, consistent with occasional glaciations. Isotopic mass fractionation of atmospheric xenon through the Archean until atmospheric oxygenation is best explained by drag of xenon ions by hydrogen escaping rapidly into space. These data imply that substantial loss of hydrogen oxidized the Earth. Despite these advances, detailed understanding of the coevolving solid Earth, biosphere, and atmosphere remains elusive, however.

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Section: Archean Atmospheric Gasessupporting

confidence: 61%

“…3B). First, signs of methanogens and methanotrophs from light carbon isotopes in Archean organics imply methane's presence [e.g., (109)]. Second, Archean S-MIF requires >20-ppmv CH 4 to generate particulate sulfur, S 8 (Table 1).…”

Section: Archean Atmospheric Gasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Archean atmosphere

2020

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“…Evolution of methanogenesis. The earliest evidence for methanogenesis in the rock record dates back over 3.5 billion years ago (Stüeken and Buick 2018;Ueno et al 2006), consistent with molecular clock dating of methanogenic lineages (Wolfe and Fournier 2018). The earliest methanogens were likely hydrogenotrophic (Bapteste et al 2005).…”

supporting

confidence: 62%

Methanogenesis

Glass¹,

Whitman²

2019

Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

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Methanogenesis is an anaerobic respiration leading to the biological production of methane. Chemical Formulas Hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis: CO 2 + 4H 2 ! CH 4 + 2H 2 O DG o ' = À135.6 kJ mol À1 methane Methylotrophic methanogenesis: 4CH 3 OH ! 3CH 4 + CO 2 + 2H 2 O DG o ' = À112.5 kJ mol À1 methane Aceticlastic methanogenesis: CH 3 COOH ! CH 4 + CO 2 DG o ' = À31.0 kJ mol À1 methane History The discovery of biological methane production as flammable marsh gas dates back to the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta in the mid-1700s. Methanogenic archaea were first isolated in the 1930s-1940s, but not recognized as Archaea until the late 1970s (Balch et al. 1979). Elucidation of the pathway of methanogenesis was achieved during the 1980s-1990s. In the twenty-first century, gene sequencing from environmental DNA is revealing a much wider diversity of methanogens than previously recognized, much of which remains uncultivated. Overview Methanogenesis, or biological production of methane via anaerobic respiration, accounts for 70% of the 500-600 tera-grams of methane emitted to Earth's atmosphere each year (Lyu et al. 2018). To date, all the methanogens discovered so far are (1) strict anaerobes with metal-rich enzymes that are highly sensitive to molecular oxygen; (2) obligate methanogens that only grow while making methane; and (3) Archaea that are evolutionarily very distinct from the

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“…It was not until toward the end of the Ediacaran that some of the most rudimentary forms of complex animals first appeared, implying a bulk of Earth's history has been dominated by microbial life, stretching back to the Archean (e.g., Knoll et al., 2016; Van Kranendonk et al., 2019). Remnants of Archean life have been described from volcanic settings as microbially related deposits and structures preserving evidence for their biogenicity (Hickman‐Lewis et al., 2018; Stüeken & Buick, 2018; Van Kranendonk et al., 2019). The Amane Tazgart succession highlights an exceptional Ediacaran case predating the Cambrian explosion, providing a snapshot of a functioning microbial ecosystem in a terrestrial volcanic habitat.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 571 million‐year‐old alkaline volcanic lake photosynthesizing microbial community, the Anti‐atlas, Morocco

et al. 2020

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The Ediacaran period coincides with the emergence of ancestral animal lineages and cyanobacteria capable of thriving in nutrient deficient oceans which together with photosynthetic eukaryotic dominance, culminated in the rapid oxygenation of the Ediacaran atmosphere. However, ecological evidence for the colonization of the Ediacaran terrestrial biosphere by photosynthetic communities and their contribution to the oxygenation of the biosphere at this time is very sparse. Here, we expand the repertoire of Ediacaran habitable environments to a specific microbial community that thrived in an extreme alkaline volcanic lake 571 Myr ago in the Anti‐atlas of Morocco. The microbial fabrics preserve evidence of primary growth structures, comprised of two main microbialitic units, with the lower section consisting of irregular and patchy thrombolytic mesoclots associated with composite microbialitic domes. Calcirudite interbeds, dominated by wave‐rippled sandy calcarenites and stromatoclasts, fill the interdome troughs and seal the dome tops. A meter‐thick epiclastic stromatolite bed grading upwards from a dominantly flat to wavy laminated base, transitions into low convex laminae consisting of decimeter to meter‐thick dome‐shaped stromatolitic columns, overlies the thrombolitic and composite microbialitic facies. Microbialitic beds constructed during periods of limited clastic input, and underlain by coarse‐grained microbialite‐derived clasts and by the wave‐rippled calcarenites, suggest high‐energy events associated with lake expansion. High‐resolution microscopy revealed spherulitic aggregates and structures reminiscent of coccoidal microbial cell casts and mineralized extra‐polymeric substances (EPS). The primary fabrics and multistage diagenetic features, represented by active carbonate production, photosynthesizing microbial communities, photosynthetic gas bubbles, gas escape structures, and tufted mats, suggest specialized oxygenic photosynthesizers thriving in alkaline volcanic lakes, contributed toward oxygen variability in the Ediacaran terrestrial biosphere.

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Environmental control on microbial diversification and methane production in the Mesoarchean

Cited by 31 publications

References 87 publications

The Archean atmosphere

The Archean atmosphere

Methanogenesis

A 571 million‐year‐old alkaline volcanic lake photosynthesizing microbial community, the Anti‐atlas, Morocco

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