Microbial Fe cycling in a simulated Precambrian ocean environment: Implications for secondary mineral (trans)formation and deposition during BIF genesis

Schad, Manuel; Byrne, James M.; ThomasArrigo, Laurel K.; Kretzschmar, Ruben; Konhauser, Kurt O.; Kappler, Andreas

doi:10.1016/j.gca.2022.05.016

Cited by 10 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 171 publications

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“…However, photoferrotrophy in low and high Si setups produced poorly crystalline ferrihydrite in both our experiment and the experiment conducted by Schad et al. (2022), despite differences in microorganisms used and Fe(II) oxidation rates. Given this evidence, it seems unlikely that differential rates of Fe(II) oxidation are solely responsible for setting the mineralogy of primary precipitates.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 47%

“…If our experiments correctly simulated the partial oxidation of Fe(II) aq and/or ensuing particle exposure to residual Fe(II) aq in the Archean ocean, ancient photoferrotrophy could have exported admixtures of Fe(II), Fe(III), and Si from the photic zone. This mixture would constitute a more reduced assemblage than suggested by previous hypotheses, which focus on the export of ferrihydrite or Fe(III)‐Si coprecipitates to marine sediments (Eickhoff et al., 2014; Schad et al., 2022). The delivery of associated Fe(II) alongside siliceous ferrihydrite could have enabled the formation of Fe(II)‐bearing minerals in the sediments, including Fe(II)‐rich silicates or Fe(II)‐carbonates, even without Fe(III) reduction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Therefore, in this experiment, the decrease in Fe(II) aq observed after addition of R. palustris cannot be solely attributed to oxidation via photoferrotrophy, as Fe(II) might also be lost from solution by sorption onto solid phases or incorporation into polymerized silica. We note that solution Fe(II) measurements in similar studies (e.g., Gauger et al, 2016;Schad et al, 2022;Wu et al, 2017) may also be obscured or overprinted by abiotic processes that culminate in the loss of Fe(II) to the solid phase, rather than solely tracking oxidation rates.…”

Section: Fe(ii) Oxidation By Rhodopseudomonas Palustris Under Simulat...mentioning

confidence: 82%

“…phases . Due to our usage of a freshwater photoferrotroph in saltwater medium, Fe(II) oxidation rates in this experiment (~61 μM/day) were at least an order of magnitude slower than published rates for photoferrotrophs, including in recent experiments conducted by Schad et al (2022). Differing Fe(II) oxidation rates in otherwise similar experimental setups could have influenced both primary mineralogy and the rates of silica nucleation and further recrystallization.…”

Section: Silica Mediates Coprecipitation Of Fe(ii) Into the Solid Phasementioning

confidence: 83%

“…A recent paper by Schad et al. (2022) comes closer to understanding how silica influences biogenic precipitates in environmental analogs, as they use a marine photoferrotroph ( Chlorobium sp. strain N1) and seawater medium with [Si] plausible for the Precambrian ocean (0.67 and 2.2 mM).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissolved silica affects the bulk iron redox state and recrystallization of minerals generated by photoferrotrophy in a simulated Archean ocean

Zhou,

Templeton,

Johnson

2024

Geobiology

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Chemical sedimentary deposits called Banded Iron Formations (BIFs) are one of the best surviving records of ancient marine (bio)geochemistry. Many BIF precursor sediments precipitated from ferruginous, silica‐rich waters prior to the Great Oxidation Event at ~2.43 Ga. Reconstructing the mineralogy of BIF precursor phases is key to understanding the coevolution of seawater chemistry and early life. Many models of BIF deposition invoke the activity of Fe(II)‐oxidizing photoautotrophic bacteria as a mechanism for precipitating mixed‐valence Fe(II,III) and/or fully oxidized Fe(III) minerals in the absence of molecular oxygen. Although the identity of phases produced by ancient photoferrotrophs remains debated, laboratory experiments provide a means to explore what their mineral byproducts might have been. Few studies have thoroughly characterized precipitates produced by photoferrotrophs in settings representative of Archean oceans, including investigating how residual Fe(II)aq can affect the mineralogy of expected solid phases. The concentration of dissolved silica (Si) is also an important variable to consider, as silicate species may influence the identity and reactivity of Fe(III)‐bearing phases. To address these uncertainties, we cultured Rhodopseudomonas palustris TIE‐1 as a photoferrotroph in synthetic Archean seawater with an initial [Fe(II)aq] of 1 mM and [Si] spanning 0–1.5 mM. Ferrihydrite was the dominant precipitate across all Si concentrations, even with substantial Fe(II) remaining in solution. Consistent with other studies of microbial iron oxidation, no Fe‐silicates were observed across the silica gradient, although Si coprecipitated with ferrihydrite via surface adsorption. More crystalline phases such as lepidocrocite and goethite were only detected at low [Si] and are likely products of Fe(II)‐catalyzed ferrihydrite transformation. Finally, we observed a substantial fraction of Fe(II) in precipitates, with the proportion of Fe(II) increasing as a function of [Si]. These experimental results suggest that photoferrotrophy in a Fe(II)‐buffered ocean may have exported Fe(II,III)‐oxide/silica admixtures to BIF sediments, providing a more chemically diverse substrate than previously hypothesized.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 47%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: Fe(ii) Oxidation By Rhodopseudomonas Palustris Under Simulat...mentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Silica Mediates Coprecipitation Of Fe(ii) Into the Solid Phasementioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissolved silica affects the bulk iron redox state and recrystallization of minerals generated by photoferrotrophy in a simulated Archean ocean

Zhou,

Templeton,

Johnson

2024

Geobiology

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The Possible Role of Anoxic Alkaline High Subcritical Water in the Formation of Ferric Minerals, Methane and Disordered Graphitic Carbon in a BARB3 Drilled Sample of the 3.4 Ga Buck Reef Chert

Bassez

2023

Orig Life Evol Biosph

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The present article reports Raman spectroscopic observations of siderite, hematite, disordered graphitic carbon and possibly greenalite inside the quartz matrix of a banded iron sample from the BARB3 core drilled inside the 3.4 Ga Buck Reef Chert of the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa. The article also reports Raman spectroscopic observations of quartz cavities, concluding in the presence of water, methane and sodium hydroxide at high concentration leading to pH ~ 15 inside the inclusion, suggesting an Archean water which was strongly basic. FeIII-greenalite may also be present inside the inclusion. The possible role of anoxic alkaline high subcritical water in the formation of ferric minerals and the CO required for the synthesis of molecules of biological interest has been demonstrated theoretically since 2013 and summarized in the concept of Geobiotropy. The present article experimentally confirms the importance of considering water in its anoxic strongly alkaline high subcritical domain for the formation of quartz, hematite, FeIII-greenalite, methane and disordered graphitic carbon. Methane is proposed to form locally when the carbon dioxide that is dissolved in the Archean anoxic alkaline high subcritical water, interacts with the molecular hydrogen that is emitted during the anoxic alkaline oxidation of ferrous silicates. The carbon matter is proposed to form as deposition from the anoxic methane-rich fluid. A detailed study of carbon matter from diverse origins is presented in a supplementary file. The study shows that the BARB3_23B sample has been submitted to ~ 335 °C, a temperature of the high subcritical domain, and that the graphitic structure contains very low amounts of oxygen and no hydroxyl functional groups. The importance of considering the structure of water is applied to the constructions of the Neoproterozoic and Archean banded iron formations. It is proposed that their minerals are produced inside chemical reaction chambers containing ferrous silicates, and ejected from the Earth’s oceanic crust or upper mantle, during processes involving subduction events or not.

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The Palaeoproterozoic Hotazel BIF-Mn Formation as an archive of Earth's earliest oxygenation

Mhlanga

Tsikos

Lee

et al. 2023

Earth-Science Reviews

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Microbial Fe cycling in a simulated Precambrian ocean environment: Implications for secondary mineral (trans)formation and deposition during BIF genesis

Cited by 10 publications

References 171 publications

Dissolved silica affects the bulk iron redox state and recrystallization of minerals generated by photoferrotrophy in a simulated Archean ocean

Dissolved silica affects the bulk iron redox state and recrystallization of minerals generated by photoferrotrophy in a simulated Archean ocean

The Possible Role of Anoxic Alkaline High Subcritical Water in the Formation of Ferric Minerals, Methane and Disordered Graphitic Carbon in a BARB3 Drilled Sample of the 3.4 Ga Buck Reef Chert

The Palaeoproterozoic Hotazel BIF-Mn Formation as an archive of Earth's earliest oxygenation

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