1
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Geyman EC, Ke Y, Magyar JS, Reahl JN, Soldano V, Brown ND, West AJ, Fischer WW, Lamb MP. Scaling laws for sediment storage and turnover in river floodplains. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2025; 11:eadu8574. [PMID: 40215305 PMCID: PMC11988448 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adu8574] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2024] [Accepted: 03/07/2025] [Indexed: 04/14/2025]
Abstract
Nearly 10% of Earth's continents are covered by river floodplains. These landscapes serve as weathering reactors whereby particles eroded from mountains undergo chemical and physical alteration before being exported to oceans. The time a particle spends in floodplain reservoirs regulates the style and extent of continental chemical weathering and the fate of terrestrial organic carbon. Despite its importance for the global carbon cycle, we still lack a quantitative understanding of floodplain storage timescales. Using a combination of geomorphic mapping, radiocarbon and luminescence dating, and numerical simulations of meander dynamics, we identify well-conserved scaling laws that describe floodplain storage times. Our results reveal that, to first order, floodplain storage durations are set by the ratio of river width to migration rate. The fact that most rivers erode about 1% of their width per year leads to a typical floodplain storage duration of ~5 thousand years.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily C. Geyman
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Yutian Ke
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - John S. Magyar
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Jocelyn N. Reahl
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
| | - Vincent Soldano
- Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, NV 89557, USA
| | - Nathan D. Brown
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas, Arlington, TX 76019, USA
| | - A. Joshua West
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
| | - Woodward W. Fischer
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Michael P. Lamb
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
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2
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Waldeck AR, Olson HC, Crockford PW, Couture AM, Cowie BR, Hodgin EB, Bergmann KD, Dewing K, Grasby SE, Clark RJ, Macdonald FA, Johnston DT. Marine sulphate captures a Paleozoic transition to a modern terrestrial weathering environment. Nat Commun 2025; 16:2087. [PMID: 40025066 PMCID: PMC11873193 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57282-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2024] [Accepted: 02/18/2025] [Indexed: 03/04/2025] Open
Abstract
The triple oxygen isotope composition of sulphate minerals has been used to constrain the evolution of Earth's surface environment (e.g., pO2, pCO2 and gross primary productivity) throughout the Proterozoic Eon. This approach presumes the incorporation of atmospheric O2 atoms into riverine sulphate via the oxidative weathering of pyrite. However, this is not borne out in recent geological or modern sulphate records, where an atmospheric signal is imperceptible and where terrestrial pyrite weathering occurs predominantly in bedrock fractures that are physically more removed from atmospheric O2. To better define the transition from a Proterozoic to a modern-like weathering regime, here we present new measurements from twelve marine evaporite basins spanning the Phanerozoic. These data display a step-like transition in the triple oxygen isotope composition of evaporite sulphate during the mid-Paleozoic (420 to 387.7 million years ago). We propose that the evolution of early root systems deepened the locus of pyrite oxidation and reduced the incorporation of O2 into sulphate. Further, the early Devonian proliferation of land plants increased terrestrial organic carbon burial, releasing free oxygen that fueled increased redox recycling of soil-bound iron and resulted in the final rise in pO2 to modern-like levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna R Waldeck
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
- Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
| | - Haley C Olson
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Peter W Crockford
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA
- Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
| | - Abby M Couture
- Department of Geosciences, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA
| | - Benjamin R Cowie
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Eben B Hodgin
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
| | - Kristin D Bergmann
- Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Keith Dewing
- Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Stephen E Grasby
- Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Ryan J Clark
- Iowa Geological Survey, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Francis A Macdonald
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - David T Johnston
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
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3
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Ferranti DA, Delwiche CF. Investigating the evolution of green algae with a large transcriptomic data set. JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY 2024; 60:1406-1419. [PMID: 39404089 DOI: 10.1111/jpy.13509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2024] [Revised: 08/29/2024] [Accepted: 09/04/2024] [Indexed: 12/28/2024]
Abstract
The colonization of land by plants approximately 450-500 million years ago (Mya) is one of the most important events in the history of life on Earth. Land plants, hereafter referred to as "embryophytes," comprise the foundation of every terrestrial biome, making them an essential lineage for the origin and maintenance of biodiversity. The embryophytes form a monophyletic clade within one of the two major phyla of the green algae (Viridiplantae), the Streptophyta. Estimates from fossil data and molecular clock analyses suggest the Streptophyte algae (Charophytes) diverged from the other main phylum of green algae, the Chlorophyta, as much as 1500 Mya. Here we present a phylogenetic analysis using transcriptomic and genomic data of 62 green algae and embryophyte operational taxonomic units, 31 of which were assembled de novo for this project. We have focused on identifying the charophyte lineage that is sister to embryophytes, and show that the Zygnematophyceae have the strongest support, followed by the Charophyceae. Furthermore, we have examined amino acid and codon usage across the tree and determined these data broadly follow the phylogenetic tree. We concluded by searching the data set for protein domains and gene families known to be important in embryophytes. Many of these domains and genes have homologous sequences in the charophyte lineages, giving insight into the processes that underlay the colonization of the land by plants. This provides new insights into green algal diversification, identifies previously unknown attributes of genome evolution within the group, and shows how functional mechanisms have evolved over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- David A Ferranti
- Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
| | - Charles F Delwiche
- Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
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4
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Wei GY, Zhao M, Sperling EA, Gaines RR, Kalderon-Asael B, Shen J, Li C, Zhang F, Li G, Zhou C, Cai C, Chen D, Xiao KQ, Jiang L, Ling HF, Planavsky NJ, Tarhan LG. Lithium isotopic constraints on the evolution of continental clay mineral factory and marine oxygenation in the earliest Paleozoic Era. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2024; 10:eadk2152. [PMID: 38552018 PMCID: PMC10980266 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk2152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/26/2024] [Indexed: 04/01/2024]
Abstract
The evolution of oxygen cycles on Earth's surface has been regulated by the balance between molecular oxygen production and consumption. The Neoproterozoic-Paleozoic transition likely marks the second rise in atmospheric and oceanic oxygen levels, widely attributed to enhanced burial of organic carbon. However, it remains disputed how marine organic carbon production and burial respond to global environmental changes and whether these feedbacks trigger global oxygenation during this interval. Here, we report a large lithium isotopic and elemental dataset from marine mudstones spanning the upper Neoproterozoic to middle Cambrian [~660 million years ago (Ma) to 500 Ma]. These data indicate a dramatic increase in continental clay formation after ~525 Ma, likely linked to secular changes in global climate and compositions of the continental crust. Using a global biogeochemical model, we suggest that intensified continental weathering and clay delivery to the oceans could have notably increased the burial efficiency of organic carbon and facilitated greater oxygen accumulation in the earliest Paleozoic oceans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guang-Yi Wei
- School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA
| | - Mingyu Zhao
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Erik A. Sperling
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | | | - Boriana Kalderon-Asael
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA
| | - Jun Shen
- State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
| | - Chao Li
- State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation and Institute of Sedimentary Geology, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
- Key Laboratory of Deep-time Geography and Environment Reconstruction and Applications of Ministry of Natural Resources, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
- International Center for Sedimentary Geochemistry and Biogeochemistry Research, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China
| | - Feifei Zhang
- School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Gaojun Li
- School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Chuanming Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, and Center for Excellence in Life and Palaeoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
| | - Chunfang Cai
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Daizhao Chen
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ke-Qing Xiao
- State Key Lab of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shuangqing Rd. 18, 10085, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
| | - Lei Jiang
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Hong-Fei Ling
- School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, and Frontiers Science Center for Critical Earth Material Cycling, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Noah J. Planavsky
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA
| | - Lidya G. Tarhan
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA
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5
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Isson T, Rauzi S. Oxygen isotope ensemble reveals Earth's seawater, temperature, and carbon cycle history. Science 2024; 383:666-670. [PMID: 38330122 DOI: 10.1126/science.adg1366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2024] [Indexed: 02/10/2024]
Abstract
Earth's persistent habitability since the Archean remains poorly understood. Using an oxygen isotope ensemble approach-comprising shale, iron oxide, carbonate, silica, and phosphate records-we reconcile a multibillion-year history of seawater δ18O, temperature, and marine and terrestrial clay abundance. Our results reveal a rise in seawater δ18O and a temperate Proterozoic climate distinct to interpretations of a hot early Earth, indicating a strongly buffered climate system. Precambrian sediments are enriched in marine authigenic clay, with prominent reductions occurring in concert with Paleozoic and Cenozoic cooling, the expansion of siliceous life, and the radiation of land plants. These findings support the notion that shifts in the locus and extent of clay formation contributed to seawater 18O enrichment, clement early Earth conditions, major climate transitions, and climate stability through the reverse weathering feedback.
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Affiliation(s)
- Terry Isson
- Te Aka Mātuatua, University of Waikato (Tauranga), Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, New Zealand
| | - Sofia Rauzi
- Te Aka Mātuatua, University of Waikato (Tauranga), Bay of Plenty, Tauranga, New Zealand
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6
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D'Ario M, Lane B, Fioratti Junod M, Leslie A, Mosca G, Smith RS. Hidden functional complexity in the flora of an early land ecosystem. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2024; 241:937-949. [PMID: 37644727 PMCID: PMC10952896 DOI: 10.1111/nph.19228] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/06/2023] [Accepted: 08/04/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
The first land ecosystems were composed of organisms considered simple in nature, yet the morphological diversity of their flora was extraordinary. The biological significance of this diversity remains a mystery largely due to the absence of feasible study approaches. To study the functional biology of Early Devonian flora, we have reconstructed extinct plants from fossilised remains in silico. We explored the morphological diversity of sporangia in relation to their mechanical properties using finite element method. Our approach highlights the impact of sporangia morphology on spore dispersal and adaptation. We discovered previously unidentified innovations among early land plants, discussing how different species might have opted for different spore dispersal strategies. We present examples of convergent evolution for turgor pressure resistance, achieved by homogenisation of stress in spherical sporangia and by torquing force in Tortilicaulis-like specimens. In addition, we show a potential mechanism for stress-assisted sporangium rupture. Our study reveals the deceptive complexity of this seemingly simple group of organisms. We leveraged the quantitative nature of our approach and constructed a fitness landscape to understand the different ecological niches present in the Early Devonian Welsh Borderland flora. By connecting morphology to functional biology, these findings facilitate a deeper understanding of the diversity of early land plants and their place within their ecosystem.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Gabriella Mosca
- Technical University of Munich80333MunichGermany
- Center for Plant Molecular Biology‐ZMBPUniversity of Tübingen72076TübingenGermany
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7
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Padilla S, Prado R, Anitua E. An evolutionary history of F12 gene: Emergence, loss, and vulnerability with the environment as a driver. Bioessays 2023; 45:e2300077. [PMID: 37750435 DOI: 10.1002/bies.202300077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2023] [Revised: 09/08/2023] [Accepted: 09/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/27/2023]
Abstract
In the context of macroevolutionary transitions, environmental changes prompted vertebrates already bearing genetic variations to undergo gradual adaptations resulting in profound anatomical, physiological, and behavioral adaptations. The emergence of new genes led to the genetic variation essential in metazoan evolution, just as was gene loss, both sources of genetic variation resulting in adaptive phenotypic diversity. In this context, F12-coding protein with defense and hemostatic roles emerged some 425 Mya, and it might have contributed in aquatic vertebrates to the transition from water-to-land. Conversely, the F12 loss in marine, air-breathing mammals like cetaceans has been associated with phenotypic adaptations in some terrestrial mammals in their transition to aquatic lifestyle. More recently, the advent of technological innovations in western lifestyle with blood-contacting devices and harmful environmental nanoparticles, has unfolded new roles of FXII. Environment operates as either a positive or a relaxed selective pressure on genes, and consequently genes are selected or lost. FXII, an old dog facing environmental novelties can learn new tricks and teach us new therapeutic avenues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabino Padilla
- BTI-Biotechnology Institute ImasD, Vitoria, Spain
- Eduardo Anitua Foundation for Biomedical Research, Vitoria, Spain
- University Institute for Regenerative Medicine & Oral Implantology - UIRMI (UPV/EHU-Fundación Eduardo Anitua), Vitoria, Spain
| | - Roberto Prado
- BTI-Biotechnology Institute ImasD, Vitoria, Spain
- Eduardo Anitua Foundation for Biomedical Research, Vitoria, Spain
- University Institute for Regenerative Medicine & Oral Implantology - UIRMI (UPV/EHU-Fundación Eduardo Anitua), Vitoria, Spain
| | - Eduardo Anitua
- BTI-Biotechnology Institute ImasD, Vitoria, Spain
- Eduardo Anitua Foundation for Biomedical Research, Vitoria, Spain
- University Institute for Regenerative Medicine & Oral Implantology - UIRMI (UPV/EHU-Fundación Eduardo Anitua), Vitoria, Spain
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8
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Mitchell RL, Kenrick P, Pressel S, Duckett J, Strullu-Derrien C, Davies N, McMahon WJ, Summerfield R. Terrestrial surface stabilisation by modern analogues of the earliest land plants: A multi-dimensional imaging study. GEOBIOLOGY 2023; 21:454-473. [PMID: 36779552 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12546] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2022] [Revised: 12/23/2022] [Accepted: 01/05/2023] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The evolution of the first plant-based terrestrial ecosystems in the early Palaeozoic had a profound effect on the development of soils, the architecture of sedimentary systems, and shifts in global biogeochemical cycles. In part, this was due to the evolution of complex below-ground (root-like) anchorage systems in plants, which expanded and promoted plant-mineral interactions, weathering, and resulting surface sediment stabilisation. However, little is understood about how these micro-scale processes occurred, because of a lack of in situ plant fossils in sedimentary rocks/palaeosols that exhibit these interactions. Some modern plants (e.g., liverworts, mosses, lycophytes) share key features with the earliest land plants; these include uni- or multicellular rhizoid-like anchorage systems or simple roots, and the ability to develop below-ground networks through prostrate axes, and intimate associations with fungi, making them suitable analogues. Here, we investigated cryptogamic ground covers in Iceland and New Zealand to better understand these interactions, and how they initiate the sediment stabilisation process. We employed multi-dimensional and multi-scale imaging, including scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Computed Tomography (μCT) of non-vascular liverworts (Haplomitriopsida and complex thalloids) and mosses, with additional imaging of vascular lycopods. We find that plants interact with their substrate in multiple ways, including: (1) through the development of extensive surface coverings as mats; (2) entrapment of sediment grains within and between networks of rhizoids; (3) grain entwining and adherence by rhizoids, through mucilage secretions, biofilm-like envelopment of thalli on surface grains; and (4) through grain entrapment within upright 'leafy' structures. Significantly, μCT imaging allows us to ascertain that rhizoids are the main method for entrapment and stabilisation of soil grains in the thalloid liverworts. This information provides us with details of how the earliest land plants may have significantly influenced early Palaeozoic sedimentary system architectures, promoted in situ weathering and proto-soil development, and how these interactions diversified over time with the evolution of new plant organ systems. Further, this study highlights the importance of cryptogamic organisms in the early stages of sediment stabilisation and soil formation today.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ria L Mitchell
- Science Group, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
- Sheffield Tomography Centre (STC), Kroto Research Institute, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Paul Kenrick
- Science Group, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | | | - Jeff Duckett
- Science Group, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | - Christine Strullu-Derrien
- Science Group, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), UMR7205, Muséum National d'Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Neil Davies
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - William J McMahon
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
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Yuan W, Liu M, Chen D, Xing YW, Spicer RA, Chen J, Them TR, Wang X, Li S, Guo C, Zhang G, Zhang L, Zhang H, Feng X. Mercury isotopes show vascular plants had colonized land extensively by the early Silurian. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eade9510. [PMID: 37115923 PMCID: PMC10146902 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade9510] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
The colonization and expansion of plants on land is considered one of the most profound ecological revolutions, yet the precise timing remains controversial. Because land vegetation can enhance weathering intensity and affect terrigenous input to the ocean, changes in terrestrial plant biomass with distinct negative Δ199Hg and Δ200Hg signatures may overwrite the positive Hg isotope signatures commonly found in marine sediments. By investigating secular Hg isotopic variations in the Paleozoic marine sediments from South China and peripheral paleocontinents, we highlight distinct negative excursions in both Δ199Hg and Δ200Hg at Stage level starting in the early Silurian and again in the Carboniferous. These geochemical signatures were driven by increased terrestrial contribution of Hg due to the rapid expansion of vascular plants. These excursions broadly coincide with rising atmospheric oxygen concentrations and global cooling. Therefore, vascular plants were widely distributed on land during the Ordovician-Silurian transition (~444 million years), long before the earliest reported vascular plant fossil, Cooksonia (~430 million years).
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Yuan
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550081, China
| | - Mu Liu
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
| | - Daizhao Chen
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- Corresponding author. (X.F.); (D.C.)
| | - Yao-Wu Xing
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China
| | - Robert A. Spicer
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan 666303, China
- School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
- State Key Laboratory of Tibetan Plateau Earth System, Resources and Environment (TPESRE), Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Jitao Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
- Nanjing College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 211135, China
| | - Theodore R. Them
- Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424, USA
| | - Xun Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550081, China
| | - Shizhen Li
- Oil and Gas Survey, China Geological Survey, Ministry of Natural Resources, Beijing 100083, China
| | - Chuan Guo
- College of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Key Laboratory of Karst Georesources and Environment, Ministry of Education, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China
| | - Gongjing Zhang
- Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China
| | - Liyu Zhang
- Wuxi Research Institute of Petroleum Geology, Petroleum Exploration and Production Research Institute, SINOPEC, Wuxi 214126, China
| | - Hui Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550081, China
| | - Xinbin Feng
- State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550081, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- Corresponding author. (X.F.); (D.C.)
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10
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Boyce CK, Ibarra DE, D'Antonio MP. What we talk about when we talk about the long-term carbon cycle. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2023; 237:1550-1557. [PMID: 36484141 DOI: 10.1111/nph.18665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2022] [Accepted: 11/18/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The terrestrial biota is a crucial part of the long-term carbon cycle via the deposition of biomass as coal and other sedimentary organic matter and the impact of plants, fungi, and microbial life on the weathering of silicate minerals. Understanding these processes and their changes through time requires both geochemical modeling of the system as well as expertise in the living and fossil biotas and their ecological interactions, but details of these components are often lost in translation between disciplines. Here, we highlight misconceptions of the long-term carbon cycle that most frequently infiltrate the literature and hamper progress: mass balance requirements, the nature and duration of perturbations, opposing timescale constraints on biological and geological processes, and the role of models.
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Affiliation(s)
- C Kevin Boyce
- Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
| | - Daniel E Ibarra
- Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02906, USA
| | - Michael P D'Antonio
- Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA
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11
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Boyce CK, Ibarra DE, Nelsen MP, D'Antonio MP. Nitrogen-based symbioses, phosphorus availability, and accounting for a modern world more productive than the Paleozoic. GEOBIOLOGY 2023; 21:86-101. [PMID: 35949039 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12519] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2022] [Revised: 07/07/2022] [Accepted: 07/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Evolution of high-productivity angiosperms has been regarded as a driver of Mesozoic ecosystem restructuring. However, terrestrial productivity is limited by availability of rock-derived nutrients such as phosphorus for which permanent increases in weathering would violate mass balance requirements of the long-term carbon cycle. The potential reality of productivity increases sustained since the Mesozoic is supported here with documentation of a dramatic increase in the evolution of nitrogen-fixing or nitrogen-scavenging symbioses, including more than 100 lineages of ectomycorrhizal and lichen-forming fungi and plants with specialized microbial associations. Given this evidence of broadly increased nitrogen availability, we explore via carbon cycle modeling how enhanced phosphorus availability might be sustained without violating mass balance requirements. Volcanism is the dominant carbon input, dictating peaks in weathering outputs up to twice modern values. However, times of weathering rate suppression may be more important for setting system behavior, and the late Paleozoic was the only extended period over which rates are expected to have remained lower than modern. Modeling results are consistent with terrestrial organic matter deposition that accompanied Paleozoic vascular plant evolution having suppressed weathering fluxes by providing an alternative sink of atmospheric CO2 . Suppression would have then been progressively lifted as the crustal reservoir's holding capacity for terrestrial organic matter saturated back toward steady state with deposition of new organic matter balanced by erosion of older organic deposits. Although not an absolute increase, weathering fluxes returning to early Paleozoic conditions would represent a novel regime for the complex land biota that evolved in the interim. Volcanism-based peaks in Mesozoic weathering far surpass the modern rates that sustain a complex diversity of nitrogen-based symbioses; only in the late Paleozoic might these ecologies have been suppressed by significantly lower rates. Thus, angiosperms are posited to be another effect rather than proximal cause of Mesozoic upheaval.
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Affiliation(s)
- C Kevin Boyce
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
| | - Daniel E Ibarra
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
- Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Science, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
| | - Matthew P Nelsen
- Negaunee Integrative Research Center, The Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - Michael P D'Antonio
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
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12
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Low atmospheric CO 2 levels before the rise of forested ecosystems. Nat Commun 2022; 13:7616. [PMID: 36539413 PMCID: PMC9768202 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35085-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2022] [Accepted: 11/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The emergence of forests on Earth (~385 million years ago, Ma)1 has been linked to an order-of-magnitude decline in atmospheric CO2 levels and global climatic cooling by altering continental weathering processes, but observational constraints on atmospheric CO2 before the rise of forests carry large, often unbound, uncertainties. Here, we calibrate a mechanistic model for gas exchange in modern lycophytes and constrain atmospheric CO2 levels 410-380 Ma from related fossilized plants with bound uncertainties of approximately ±100 ppm (1 sd). We find that the atmosphere contained ~525-715 ppm CO2 before continents were afforested, and that Earth was partially glaciated according to a palaeoclimate model. A process-driven biogeochemical model (COPSE) shows the appearance of trees with deep roots did not dramatically enhance atmospheric CO2 removal. Rather, shallow-rooted vascular ecosystems could have simultaneously caused abrupt atmospheric oxygenation and climatic cooling long before the rise of forests, although earlier CO2 levels are still unknown.
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13
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Assessing the expansion of the Cambrian Agronomic Revolution into fan-delta environments. Sci Rep 2022; 12:14431. [PMID: 36002516 PMCID: PMC9402710 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-18199-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The intensity, extent, and ecosystem-level impact of bioturbation (i.e. Agronomic Revolution) at the dawn of the Phanerozoic is a hotly debated issue. Middle Cambrian fan-delta deposits in southwestern Saskatchewan provide insights into the paleoenvironmental extent of the Agronomic Revolution into marginal-marine environments. The studied deposits reveal that several environmental stressors had direct impact on trace-fossil distribution and bioturbation intensities in Cambrian fan deltas. Basal and proximal subaerial deposits are characterized by very coarse grain size and absence of bioturbation. Mid-fan and fan-toe deposits were formed under subaqueous conditions and are characterized by rapid bioturbation events in between sedimentation episodes when environmental stressors were ameliorated, providing evidence of a significant landward expansion of the Agronomic Revolution. Transgressive marine deposits accumulated after the abandonment of the fan-delta system display high levels of bioturbation intensity, reflecting stable environmental conditions that favored endobenthic colonization. The presence of intense bioturbation in both subaqueous fan delta and transgressive deposits provides further support to the view that Cambrian levels of biogenic mixing were high, provided that stable environmental conditions were reached. Our study underscores the importance of evaluating sedimentary facies changes to assess the impact of environmental factors prior to making evolutionary inferences.
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14
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Buatois LA, Davies NS, Gibling MR, Krapovickas V, Labandeira CC, MacNaughton RB, Mángano MG, Minter NJ, Shillito AP. The Invasion of the Land in Deep Time: Integrating Paleozoic Records of Paleobiology, Ichnology, Sedimentology, and Geomorphology. Integr Comp Biol 2022; 62:297-331. [PMID: 35640908 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icac059] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Revised: 04/19/2022] [Accepted: 05/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The invasion of the land was a complex, protracted process, punctuated by mass extinctions, that involved multiple routes from marine environments. We integrate paleobiology, ichnology, sedimentology, and geomorphology to reconstruct Paleozoic terrestrialization. Cambrian landscapes were dominated by laterally mobile rivers with unstable banks in the absence of significant vegetation. Temporary incursions by arthropods and worm-like organisms into coastal environments apparently did not result in establishment of continental communities. Contemporaneous lacustrine faunas may have been inhibited by limited nutrient delivery and high sediment loads. The Ordovician appearance of early land plants triggered a shift in the primary locus of the global clay mineral factory, increasing the amount of mudrock on the continents. The Silurian-Devonian rise of vascular land plants, including the first forests and extensive root systems, was instrumental in further retaining fine sediment on alluvial plains. These innovations led to increased architectural complexity of braided and meandering rivers. Landscape changes were synchronous with establishment of freshwater and terrestrial arthropod faunas in overbank areas, abandoned fluvial channels, lake margins, ephemeral lakes, and inland deserts. Silurian-Devonian lakes experienced improved nutrient availability, due to increased phosphate weathering and terrestrial humic matter. All these changes favoured frequent invasions to permament establishment of jawless and jawed fishes in freshwater habitats and the subsequent tetrapod colonization of the land. The Carboniferous saw rapid diversification of tetrapods, mostly linked to aquatic reproduction, and land plants, including gymnosperms. Deeper root systems promoted further riverbank stabilization, contributing to the rise of anabranching rivers and braided systems with vegetated islands. New lineages of aquatic insects developed and expanded novel feeding modes, including herbivory. Late Paleozoic soils commonly contain pervasive root and millipede traces. Lacustrine animal communities diversified, accompanied by increased food-web complexity and improved food delivery which may have favored permanent colonization of offshore and deep-water lake environments. These trends continued in the Permian, but progressive aridification favored formation of hypersaline lakes, which were stressful for colonization. The Capitanian and end-Permian extinctions affected lacustrine and fluvial biotas, particularly the invertebrate infauna, although burrowing may have allowed some tetrapods to survive associated global warming and increased aridification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Luis A Buatois
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E2, Canada
| | - Neil S Davies
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB2 3EQ, UK
| | - Martin R Gibling
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada
| | - Verónica Krapovickas
- Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Intendente Güiraldes 2160, Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EGA, Argentina
| | - Conrad C Labandeira
- Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20013-7012, USA.,Department of Entomology and BEES Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 21740, USA.,College of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
| | - Robert B MacNaughton
- Geological Survey of Canada (Calgary), Natural Resources Canada, Calgary, Alberta T2L 2A7, Canada
| | - M Gabriela Mángano
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E2, Canada
| | - Nicholas J Minter
- School of the Environment, Geography, and Geosciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 3QL, UK
| | - Anthony P Shillito
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK
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15
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Saleh F, Qi C, Buatois LA, Mángano MG, Paz M, Vaucher R, Zheng Q, Hou XG, Gabbott SE, Ma X. The Chengjiang Biota inhabited a deltaic environment. Nat Commun 2022; 13:1569. [PMID: 35322027 PMCID: PMC8943010 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29246-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2021] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The Chengjiang Biota is the earliest Phanerozoic soft-bodied fossil assemblage offering the most complete snapshot of Earth’s initial diversification, the Cambrian Explosion. Although palaeobiologic aspects of this biota are well understood, the precise sedimentary environment inhabited by this biota remains debated. Herein, we examine a non-weathered core from the Yu’anshan Formation including the interval preserving the Chengjiang Biota. Our data indicate that the succession was deposited as part of a delta influenced by storm floods (i.e., produced by upstream river floods resulting from ocean storms). Most Chengjiang animals lived in an oxygen and nutrient-rich delta front environment in which unstable salinity and high sedimentation rates were the main stressors. This unexpected finding allows for sophisticated ecological comparisons with other Burgess Shale-type deposits and emphasizes that the long-held view of Burgess Shale-type faunas as snapshots of stable distal shelf and slope communities needs to be revised based on recent sedimentologic advances. The Chengjiang Biota is the earliest most diverse animal community from the Cambrian Explosion (~518 million years ago). This biota is shown to have colonized a delta, highlighting the importance of this shallow environment in recording early snapshots of life on Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Farid Saleh
- Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China. .,MEC International Joint Laboratory for Palaeobiology and Palaeoenvironment, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.
| | - Changshi Qi
- Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.,MEC International Joint Laboratory for Palaeobiology and Palaeoenvironment, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.,State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Luis A Buatois
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
| | - M Gabriela Mángano
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
| | - Maximiliano Paz
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada
| | - Romain Vaucher
- Applied Research in Ichnology and Sedimentology (ARISE) Group, Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.,Institute of Earth Sciences (ISTE), University of Lausanne, Geopolis, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Quanfeng Zheng
- State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
| | - Xian-Guang Hou
- Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.,MEC International Joint Laboratory for Palaeobiology and Palaeoenvironment, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
| | - Sarah E Gabbott
- School of Geography, Geology and Environment, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE, UK
| | - Xiaoya Ma
- Yunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeobiology, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China. .,MEC International Joint Laboratory for Palaeobiology and Palaeoenvironment, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming, China. .,Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK.
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16
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Giuliani A, Drysdale RN, Woodhead JD, Planavsky NJ, Phillips D, Hergt J, Griffin WL, Oesch S, Dalton H, Davies GR. Perturbation of the deep-Earth carbon cycle in response to the Cambrian Explosion. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabj1325. [PMID: 35245120 PMCID: PMC8896790 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj1325] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2021] [Accepted: 01/11/2022] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Earth's carbon cycle is strongly influenced by subduction of sedimentary material into the mantle. The composition of the sedimentary subduction flux has changed considerably over Earth's history, but the impact of these changes on the mantle carbon cycle is unclear. Here, we show that the carbon isotopes of kimberlite magmas record a fundamental change in their deep-mantle source compositions during the Phanerozoic Eon. The 13C/12C of kimberlites before ~250 Ma preserves typical mantle values, whereas younger kimberlites exhibit lower and more variable ratios-a switch coincident with a recognized surge in kimberlite magmatism. We attribute these changes to increased deep subduction of organic carbon with low 13C/12C following the Cambrian Explosion when organic carbon deposition in marine sediments increased significantly. These observations demonstrate that biogeochemical processes at Earth's surface have a profound influence on the deep mantle, revealing an integral link between the deep and shallow carbon cycles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Giuliani
- Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zurich, Clausiusstrasse 25, Zurich 8092, Switzerland
| | - Russell N. Drysdale
- School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010 Victoria, Australia
| | - Jon D. Woodhead
- School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010 Victoria, Australia
| | - Noah J. Planavsky
- Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
| | - David Phillips
- School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010 Victoria, Australia
| | - Janet Hergt
- School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010 Victoria, Australia
| | - William L. Griffin
- Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (CCFS) and GEMOC, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, 2109 New South Wales, Australia
| | - Senan Oesch
- Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zurich, Clausiusstrasse 25, Zurich 8092, Switzerland
| | - Hayden Dalton
- School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3010 Victoria, Australia
| | - Gareth R. Davies
- Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands
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17
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Abstract
There can be no doubt that early land plant evolution transformed the planet but, until recently, how and when this was achieved was unclear. Coincidence in the first appearance of land plant fossils and formative shifts in atmospheric oxygen and CO2 are an artefact of the paucity of earlier terrestrial rocks. Disentangling the timing of land plant bodyplan assembly and its impact on global biogeochemical cycles has been precluded by uncertainty concerning the relationships of bryophytes to one another and to the tracheophytes, as well as the timescale over which these events unfolded. New genome and transcriptome sequencing projects, combined with the application of sophisticated phylogenomic modelling methods, have yielded increasing support for the Setaphyta clade of liverworts and mosses, within monophyletic bryophytes. We consider the evolution of anatomy, genes, genomes and of development within this phylogenetic context, concluding that many vascular plant (tracheophytes) novelties were already present in a comparatively complex last common ancestor of living land plants (embryophytes). Molecular clock analyses indicate that embryophytes emerged in a mid-Cambrian to early Ordovician interval, compatible with hypotheses on their role as geoengineers, precipitating early Palaeozoic glaciations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip C J Donoghue
- School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
| | - C Jill Harrison
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Jordi Paps
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
| | - Harald Schneider
- School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK; Center of Integrative Conservation, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan, China
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18
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Trower EJ, Strauss JV, Sperling EA, Fischer WW. Isotopic analyses of Ordovician-Silurian siliceous skeletons indicate silica-depleted Paleozoic oceans. GEOBIOLOGY 2021; 19:460-472. [PMID: 34002455 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12449] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Accepted: 04/26/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The Phanerozoic Eon marked a major transition from marine silica deposition exclusively via abiotic pathways to a system dominated by biogenic silica sedimentation. For decades, prevailing ideas predicted this abiotic-to-biogenic transition were marked by a significant decrease in the concentration of dissolved silica in seawater; however, due to the lower perceived abundance and uptake affinity of sponges and radiolarians relative to diatoms, marine dissolved silica is thought to have remained elevated above modern values until the Cenozoic radiation of diatoms. Studies of modern marine silica biomineralizers demonstrated that the Si isotope ratios (δ30 Si) of sponge spicules and planktonic silica biominerals produced by diatoms or radiolarians can be applied as quantitative proxies for past seawater dissolved silica concentrations due to differences in Si isotope fractionations among these organisms. We undertook 446 ion microprobe analyses of δ30 Si and δ18 O of sponge spicules and radiolarians from Ordovician-Silurian chert deposits of the Mount Hare Formation in Yukon, Canada. These isotopic data showed that sponges living in marine slope and basinal environments displayed small Si isotope fractionations relative to coeval radiolarians. By constructing a mathematical model of the major fluxes and reservoirs in the marine silica cycle and the physiology of silica biomineralization, we found that the concentration of dissolved silica in seawater was less than ~150 μM during early Paleozoic time-a value that is significantly lower than previous estimates. We posit that the topology of the early Paleozoic marine silica cycle resembled that of modern oceans much more closely than previously assumed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth J Trower
- Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Justin V Strauss
- Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Dartmouth, NH, USA
| | - Erik A Sperling
- Department of Geological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
| | - Woodward W Fischer
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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19
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Affiliation(s)
- Patricia G Gensel
- Biology Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
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20
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Kalderon-Asael B, Katchinoff JAR, Planavsky NJ, Hood AVS, Dellinger M, Bellefroid EJ, Jones DS, Hofmann A, Ossa FO, Macdonald FA, Wang C, Isson TT, Murphy JG, Higgins JA, West AJ, Wallace MW, Asael D, Pogge von Strandmann PAE. A lithium-isotope perspective on the evolution of carbon and silicon cycles. Nature 2021; 595:394-398. [PMID: 34262211 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03612-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2019] [Accepted: 05/04/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
The evolution of the global carbon and silicon cycles is thought to have contributed to the long-term stability of Earth's climate1-3. Many questions remain, however, regarding the feedback mechanisms at play, and there are limited quantitative constraints on the sources and sinks of these elements in Earth's surface environments4-12. Here we argue that the lithium-isotope record can be used to track the processes controlling the long-term carbon and silicon cycles. By analysing more than 600 shallow-water marine carbonate samples from more than 100 stratigraphic units, we construct a new carbonate-based lithium-isotope record spanning the past 3 billion years. The data suggest an increase in the carbonate lithium-isotope values over time, which we propose was driven by long-term changes in the lithium-isotopic conditions of sea water, rather than by changes in the sedimentary alterations of older samples. Using a mass-balance modelling approach, we propose that the observed trend in lithium-isotope values reflects a transition from Precambrian carbon and silicon cycles to those characteristic of the modern. We speculate that this transition was linked to a gradual shift to a biologically controlled marine silicon cycle and the evolutionary radiation of land plants13,14.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Noah J Planavsky
- Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
| | - Ashleigh V S Hood
- The University of Melbourne, School of Earth Sciences, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | | | | | - David S Jones
- Amherst College Geology Department, Amherst, MA, USA
| | - Axel Hofmann
- Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - Frantz Ossa Ossa
- Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.,Department of Geosciences, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany
| | - Francis A Macdonald
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Chunjiang Wang
- China University of Petroleum, College of Geosciences, Beijing, China
| | - Terry T Isson
- Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.,Te Aka Mātuatua, University of Waikato, Tauranga, New Zealand
| | - Jack G Murphy
- Department of Geoscience, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - John A Higgins
- Department of Geoscience, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - A Joshua West
- Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Malcolm W Wallace
- The University of Melbourne, School of Earth Sciences, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
| | - Dan Asael
- Earth and Planetary Sciences, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Philip A E Pogge von Strandmann
- London Geochemistry and Isotope Centre (LOGIC), Institute of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University College London and Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK. .,Institute of Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
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21
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Mitchell RL, Davies P, Kenrick P, Volkenandt T, Pleydell-Pearce C, Johnston R. Correlative Microscopy: a tool for understanding soil weathering in modern analogues of early terrestrial biospheres. Sci Rep 2021; 11:12736. [PMID: 34140576 PMCID: PMC8211647 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-92184-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2021] [Accepted: 05/27/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Correlative imaging provides a method of investigating complex systems by combining analytical (chemistry) and imaging (tomography) information across dimensions (2D-3D) and scales (centimetres-nanometres). We studied weathering processes in a modern cryptogamic ground cover from Iceland, containing early colonizing, and evolutionary ancient, communities of mosses, lichens, fungi, and bacteria. Targeted multi-scale X-ray Microscopy of a grain in-situ within a soil core revealed networks of surficial and internal features (tunnels) originating from organic-rich surface holes. Further targeted 2D grain characterisation by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), following an intermediate manual correlative preparation step, revealed Fe-rich nodules within the tunnels. Finally, nanotomographic imaging by focussed ion beam microscopy (FIB-SEM) revealed coccoid and filamentous-like structures within subsurface tunnels, as well as accumulations of Fe and S in grain surface crusts, which may represent a biological rock varnish/glaze. We attribute these features to biological processes. This work highlights the advantages and novelty of the correlative imaging approach, across scales, dimensions, and modes, to investigate biological weathering processes. Further, we demonstrate correlative microscopy as a means of identifying fingerprints of biological communities, which could be used in the geologic rock record and on extra-terrestrial bodies.
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Affiliation(s)
- R. L. Mitchell
- grid.4827.90000 0001 0658 8800Advanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) Facility, College of Engineering, Bay Campus, Swansea University, Swansea, SA1 8EN UK ,grid.35937.3b0000 0001 2270 9879Earth Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD UK ,grid.11835.3e0000 0004 1936 9262Sheffield Tomography Centre (STC), The University of Sheffield, North Campus, Broad Lane, Sheffield, S3 7HQ UK
| | - P. Davies
- grid.4827.90000 0001 0658 8800Advanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) Facility, College of Engineering, Bay Campus, Swansea University, Swansea, SA1 8EN UK
| | - P. Kenrick
- grid.35937.3b0000 0001 2270 9879Earth Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD UK
| | - T. Volkenandt
- grid.424549.a0000 0004 0379 7801Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH, Carl-Zeiss-Straße 22, 73447 Oberkochen, Germany
| | - C. Pleydell-Pearce
- grid.4827.90000 0001 0658 8800Advanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) Facility, College of Engineering, Bay Campus, Swansea University, Swansea, SA1 8EN UK
| | - R. Johnston
- grid.4827.90000 0001 0658 8800Advanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) Facility, College of Engineering, Bay Campus, Swansea University, Swansea, SA1 8EN UK
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22
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Mitchell RL, Strullu-Derrien C, Sykes D, Pressel S, Duckett JG, Kenrick P. Cryptogamic ground covers as analogues for early terrestrial biospheres: Initiation and evolution of biologically mediated proto-soils. GEOBIOLOGY 2021; 19:292-306. [PMID: 33569915 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2020] [Revised: 01/17/2021] [Accepted: 01/19/2021] [Indexed: 05/29/2023]
Abstract
Modern cryptogamic ground covers (CGCs), comprising assemblages of bryophytes (hornworts, liverworts, mosses), fungi, bacteria, lichens and algae, are thought to resemble early divergent terrestrial communities. However, limited in situ plant and other fossils in the rock record, and a lack of CGC-like soils reported in the pre-Silurian sedimentological record, have hindered understanding of the structure, composition and interactions within the earliest CGCs. A key question is how the earliest CGC-like organisms drove weathering on primordial terrestrial surfaces (regolith), leading to the early stages of soil development as proto-soils, and subsequently contributing to large-scale biogeochemical shifts in the Earth System. Here, we employed a novel qualitative, quantitative and multi-dimensional imaging approach through X-ray micro-computed tomography, scanning electron, and optical microscopy to investigate whether different combinations of modern CGC organisms from primordial-like settings in Iceland develop organism-specific soil forming features at the macro- and micro-scales. Additionally, we analysed CGCs growing on hard rocky substrates to investigate the initiation of weathering processes non-destructively in 3D. We show that thalloid CGC organisms (liverworts, hornworts) develop thin organic layers at the surface (<1 cm) with limited subsurface structural development, whereas leafy mosses and communities of mixed organisms form profiles that are thicker (up to ~ 7 cm), structurally more complex, and more organic-rich. We term these thin layers and profiles proto-soils. Component analyses from X-ray micro-computed tomography data show that thickness and structure of these proto-soils are determined by the type of colonising organism(s), suggesting that the evolution of more complex soils through the Palaeozoic may have been driven by a shift in body plan of CGC-like organisms from flattened and appressed to upright and leafy. Our results provide a framework for identifying CGC-like proto-soils in the rock record and a new proxy for understanding organism-soil interactions in ancient terrestrial biospheres and their contribution to the early stages of soil formation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ria L Mitchell
- Earth Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
- Sheffield Tomography Centre (STC), Kroto Research Institute, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Christine Strullu-Derrien
- Earth Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
- Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), UMR7205, Muséum National d'Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Dan Sykes
- Imaging and Analysis Centre (IAC), The Natural History Museum, London, UK
- Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility, School of Materials, The Royce Institute, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
| | - Silvia Pressel
- Life Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
| | | | - Paul Kenrick
- Earth Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
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Zeichner SS, Nghiem J, Lamb MP, Takashima N, de Leeuw J, Ganti V, Fischer WW. Early plant organics increased global terrestrial mud deposition through enhanced flocculation. Science 2021; 371:526-529. [PMID: 33510030 DOI: 10.1126/science.abd0379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2020] [Accepted: 12/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
An irreversible increase in alluvial mudrock occurred with the Ordovician-Silurian evolution of bryophytes, challenging a paradigm that deep-rooted plants were responsible for this landscape shift. We tested the idea that increased primary production and plant organics promoted aggregation of clay into flocs in rivers and facilitated mud deposition on floodplains. In experiments, we observed that clay readily flocculated for organic and clay concentrations common to modern rivers, yielding settling velocities three orders of magnitude larger than those without organics. Using a transport model, we found that flocculation substantially increased mud deposition, resulting in muddier floodplains. Thus, organic-induced flocculation may have been more critical than deep-rooted plants in the proliferation of muddy floodplains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah S Zeichner
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
| | - Justin Nghiem
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Michael P Lamb
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Nina Takashima
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Jan de Leeuw
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
| | - Vamsi Ganti
- Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.,Department of Earth Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Woodward W Fischer
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
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Remnants of early Earth differentiation in the deepest mantle-derived lavas. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2020; 118:2015211118. [PMID: 33443165 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2015211118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The noble gas isotope systematics of ocean island basalts suggest the existence of primordial mantle signatures in the deep mantle. Yet, the isotopic compositions of lithophile elements (Sr, Nd, Hf) in these lavas require derivation from a mantle source that is geochemically depleted by melt extraction rather than primitive. Here, this apparent contradiction is resolved by employing a compilation of the Sr, Nd, and Hf isotope composition of kimberlites-volcanic rocks that originate at great depth beneath continents. This compilation includes kimberlites as old as 2.06 billion years and shows that kimberlites do not derive from a primitive mantle source but sample the same geochemically depleted component (where geochemical depletion refers to ancient melt extraction) common to most oceanic island basalts, previously called PREMA (prevalent mantle) or FOZO (focal zone). Extrapolation of the Nd and Hf isotopic compositions of the kimberlite source to the age of Earth formation yields a 143Nd/144Nd-176Hf/177Hf composition within error of chondrite meteorites, which include the likely parent bodies of Earth. This supports a hypothesis where the source of kimberlites and ocean island basalts contains a long-lived component that formed by melt extraction from a domain with chondritic 143Nd/144Nd and 176Hf/177Hf shortly after Earth accretion. The geographic distribution of kimberlites containing the PREMA component suggests that these remnants of early Earth differentiation are located in large seismically anomalous regions corresponding to thermochemical piles above the core-mantle boundary. PREMA could have been stored in these structures for most of Earth's history, partially shielded from convective homogenization.
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Salese F, McMahon WJ, Balme MR, Ansan V, Davis JM, Kleinhans MG. Sustained fluvial deposition recorded in Mars' Noachian stratigraphic record. Nat Commun 2020; 11:2067. [PMID: 32372029 PMCID: PMC7200759 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15622-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2020] [Accepted: 03/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Orbital observation has revealed a rich record of fluvial landforms on Mars, with much of this record dating 3.6–3.0 Ga. Despite widespread geomorphic evidence, few analyses of Mars’ alluvial sedimentary-stratigraphic record exist, with detailed studies of alluvium largely limited to smaller sand-bodies amenable to study in-situ by rovers. These typically metre-scale outcrop dimensions have prevented interpretation of larger scale channel-morphology and long-term basin evolution, vital for understanding the past Martian climate. Here we give an interpretation of a large sedimentary succession at Izola mensa within the NW Hellas Basin rim. The succession comprises channel and barform packages which together demonstrate that river deposition was already well established >3.7 Ga. The deposits mirror terrestrial analogues subject to low-peak discharge variation, implying that river deposition at Izola was subject to sustained, potentially perennial, fluvial flow. Such conditions would require an environment capable of maintaining large volumes of water for extensive time-periods, necessitating a precipitation-driven hydrological cycle. Using high-resolution orbital imagery of the Martian surface, the authors Salese et al. here describe the first discovered stratigraphic product of multiple extensive fluvial-channel belts in an exposed vertical section at Izola Mensa in the northwestern rim of the Hellas Basin.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesco Salese
- Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8a, Utrecht, 3584 CB, The Netherlands. .,International Research School of Planetary Sciences, Università Gabriele D'Annunzio, Viale Pindaro 42, Pescara, 65127, Italy.
| | - William J McMahon
- Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8a, Utrecht, 3584 CB, The Netherlands
| | - Matthew R Balme
- Planetary Environments Group, Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, UK
| | - Veronique Ansan
- LPG Nantes, UMR6112, CNRS-Université de Nantes, 2 rue de la Houssinère, BP 92208, 44322, Nantes Cedex 3, France
| | - Joel M Davis
- Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, Kensington, London, SW7 5BD, UK
| | - Maarten G Kleinhans
- Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Princetonlaan 8a, Utrecht, 3584 CB, The Netherlands
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Corenblit D, Darrozes J, Julien F, Otto T, Roussel E, Steiger J, Viles H. The Search for a Signature of Life on Mars: A Biogeomorphological Approach. ASTROBIOLOGY 2019; 19:1279-1291. [PMID: 31584307 DOI: 10.1089/ast.2018.1969] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Geological evidence shows that life on Earth evolved in line with major concomitant changes in Earth surface processes and landforms. Biogeomorphological characteristics, especially those involving microorganisms, are potentially important facets of biosignatures on Mars and are generating increasing interest in astrobiology. Using Earth as an analog provides reasons to suspect that past or present life on Mars could have resulted in recognizable biogenic landforms. Here, we discuss the potential for, and limitations of, a biogeomorphological approach to identifying the subsets of landforms that are modulated or created through biological processes and thus present signatures of life on Mars. Subsets especially involving microorganisms that are potentially important facets of biosignatures on Mars are proposed: (i) weathering features, biocrusts, patinas, and varnishes; (ii) microbialites and microbially induced sedimentary structures (MISS); (iii) bioaccumulations of skeletal remains; (iv) degassing landforms; (v) cryoconites; (vi) self-organized patterns; (vii) unclassified non-analog landforms. We propose a biogeomorphological frequency histogram approach to identify anomalies/modulations in landform properties. Such detection of anomalies/modulations will help track a biotic origin and lead to the development of an integrative multiproxy and multiscale approach combining morphological, structural, textural, and geochemical expertise. This perspective can help guide the choice of investigation sites for future missions and the types and scales of observations to be made by orbiters and rovers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dov Corenblit
- Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, GEOLAB - F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
| | - José Darrozes
- Université Paul Sabatier, CNRS/IRD, GET - F-31062 Toulouse, France
| | - Frédéric Julien
- CNRS, ECOLAB, Université Paul Sabatier, CNRS, INPT, UPS, F-31062 Toulouse, France
| | - Thierry Otto
- CNRS, ECOLAB, Université Paul Sabatier, CNRS, INPT, UPS, F-31062 Toulouse, France
| | - Erwan Roussel
- Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, GEOLAB - F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
| | - Johannes Steiger
- Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, GEOLAB - F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France
| | - Heather Viles
- School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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Fernández‐Martínez M, Berloso F, Corbera J, Garcia‐Porta J, Sayol F, Preece C, Sabater F. Towards a moss sclerophylly continuum: Evolutionary history, water chemistry and climate control traits of hygrophytic mosses. Funct Ecol 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13443] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Marcos Fernández‐Martínez
- Department of Biology Centre of Excellence PLECO (Plants and Ecosystems) University of Antwerp Wilrijk Belgium
- Delegació de la Serralada Litoral Central (ICHN) Mataró Spain
| | - Ferran Berloso
- Delegació de la Serralada Litoral Central (ICHN) Mataró Spain
| | - Jordi Corbera
- Delegació de la Serralada Litoral Central (ICHN) Mataró Spain
| | - Joan Garcia‐Porta
- Department of Biology Washington University in Saint Louis St. Louis MO USA
| | - Ferran Sayol
- Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Gothenburg Gothenburg Sweden
- Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre (GGBC) Gothenburg Sweden
| | - Catherine Preece
- CSIC Global Ecology Unit CREAF‐CSIC‐UAB Barcelona Spain
- CREAF Barcelona Spain
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Braakman R. Evolution of cellular metabolism and the rise of a globally productive biosphere. Free Radic Biol Med 2019; 140:172-187. [PMID: 31082508 DOI: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.05.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2018] [Revised: 02/28/2019] [Accepted: 05/02/2019] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Metabolic processes in cells and chemical processes in the environment are fundamentally intertwined and have evolved in concert for most of Earth's existence. Here I argue that intrinsic properties of cellular metabolism imposed central constraints on the historical trajectories of biopsheric productivity and atmospheric oxygenation. Photosynthesis depends on iron, but iron is highly insoluble under the aerobic conditions produced by oxygenic photosynthesis. These counteracting constraints led to two major stages of Earth oxygenation. After a cyanobacteria-driven biospheric expansion near the Archean-Proterozoic boundary, productivity remained largely restricted to continental boundaries and shallow aquatic environments where weathering inputs made iron more accessible. The anoxic deep open ocean was rich in free iron during the Proterozoic, but this iron was largely inaccessible, partly because an otherwise nutrient-poor ocean was limiting to photosynthesis, but also because a photosynthetic expansion would have quenched its own iron supply. Near the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic boundary, bioenergetics innovations allowed eukaryotic photosynthesis to overcome these interconnected negative feedbacks and begin expanding into the deep open oceans and onto the continents, where nutrients are inherently harder to come by. Key insights into what drove the ecological rise of eukaryotic photosynthesis emerge from analyses of marine Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, abundant marine picocyanobacteria whose ancestors colonized the oceans in the Neoproterozoic. The reconstructed evolution of this group reveals a sequence of innovations that ultimately produced a form of photosynthesis in Prochlorococcus that is more like that of green plant cells than other cyanobacteria. Innovations increased the energy flux of cells, thereby enhancing their ability to acquire sparse nutrients, and as by-product also increased the production of organic carbon waste. Some of these organic waste products had the ability to chelate iron and make it bioavailable, thereby indirectly pushing the oceans through a transition from an anoxic state rich in free iron to an oxygenated state with organic carbon-bound iron. Resulting conditions (and parallel processes on the continents) in turn led to a series of positive feedbacks that increased the availability of other nutrients, thereby promoting the rise of a globally productive biosphere. In addition to the occurrence of major biospheric expansions, the several hundred million-year periods around the Archean-Proterozoic and Proterozoic-Phanerozoic boundaries share a number of other parallels. Both epochs have also been linked to major carbon cycle perturbations and global glaciations, as well as changes in the nature of plate tectonics and increases in continental exposure and weathering. This suggests the dynamics of life and Earth are intimately intertwined across many levels and that general principles governed transitions in these coupled dynamics at both times in Earth history.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rogier Braakman
- Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA; Department of Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
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Weathering in a world without terrestrial life recorded in the Mesoproterozoic Velkerri Formation. Nat Commun 2019; 10:3448. [PMID: 31371725 PMCID: PMC6671950 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11421-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2019] [Accepted: 07/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Today the terrestrial surface drives biogeochemical cycles on Earth through chemical weathering reactions mediated by the biological influence of soils. Prior to the expansion of life on to land, abiotic weathering may have resulted in different boundary conditions affecting the composition of the biosphere. Here we show a striking difference in weathering produced minerals preserved in the Mesoproterozoic Velkerri Formation. While the bulk chemistry and mineralogy is dominated by illite similar to many modern mudstones, application of a novel microbeam technology reveals that the initial detrital minerals were composed of mica (28%) and feldspar (45%) with only a trace amount (<2%) of typical soil formed clay minerals. The majority of illite and the high Al2O3 fraction previously interpreted as a weathering signal, is present as a replacement of feldspar and mica. These sediments record physical erosion with limited pedogenic clay mineral formation implying fundamentally different weathering pathways.
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Root hairs enhance Arabidopsis seedling survival upon soil disruption. Sci Rep 2019; 9:11181. [PMID: 31371805 PMCID: PMC6671945 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-47733-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2019] [Accepted: 07/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Root hairs form a substantial portion of the root surface area. Compared with their nutritional function, the physical function of root hairs has been poorly characterised. This study investigates the physical role of root hairs of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings in interaction of the root with water and soil and in plant survival upon soil disruption. Five transgenic lines with different root hair lengths were used to assess the physical function of root hairs. Upon soil disruption by water falling from a height (mimicking rainfall), long-haired lines showed much higher anchorage rates than short-haired lines. The root-pulling test revealed that a greater amount of soil adhered to long-haired roots than to short-haired roots. When seedlings were pulled out and laid on the soil surface for 15 d, survival rates of long-haired seedlings were higher than those of short-haired seedlings. Moreover, the water holding capacity of roots was much greater among long-haired seedlings than short-haired seedlings. These results suggest that root hairs play a significant role in plant survival upon soil disruption which could be fatal for young seedlings growing on thin soil surface with a short primary root and root hairs as the only soil anchoring system.
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Aubineau J, El Albani A, Bekker A, Somogyi A, Bankole OM, Macchiarelli R, Meunier A, Riboulleau A, Reynaud JY, Konhauser KO. Microbially induced potassium enrichment in Paleoproterozoic shales and implications for reverse weathering on early Earth. Nat Commun 2019; 10:2670. [PMID: 31209248 PMCID: PMC6572813 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10620-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2018] [Accepted: 05/20/2019] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Illitisation requires potassium incorporation into a smectite precursor, a process akin to reverse weathering. However, it remains unclear whether microbes facilitate K+ uptake to the sediments and whether illitisation was important in the geological past. The 2.1 billion-year-old Francevillian Series of Gabon has been shown to host mat-related structures (MRS) and, in this regard, these rocks offer a unique opportunity to test whether ancient microbes induced illitisation. Here, we show high K content confined to illite particles that are abundant in the facies bearing MRS, but not in the host sandstone and black shale. This observation suggests that microbial biofilms trapped K+ from the seawater and released it into the pore-waters during respiration, resulting in illitisation. The K-rich illite developed exclusively in the fossilized MRS thus provides a new biosignature for metasediments derived from K-feldspar-depleted rocks that were abundant crustal components on ancient Earth.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jérémie Aubineau
- UMR 7285 CNRS IC2MP, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, 86073, France
| | | | - Andrey Bekker
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA
| | - Andrea Somogyi
- Nanoscopium Beamline Synchrotron Soleil, BP 48, Saint-Aubin, Gif-sur-Yvette, 91192, France
| | - Olabode M Bankole
- UMR 7285 CNRS IC2MP, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, 86073, France
| | - Roberto Macchiarelli
- Department of Geosciences, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, 86073, France
- Department of Prehistory, UMR 7194 CNRS, National Museum of Natural History, Paris, 75005, France
| | - Alain Meunier
- UMR 7285 CNRS IC2MP, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, 86073, France
| | - Armelle Riboulleau
- UMR 8187 CNRS LOG, University of Lille, ULCO, Villeneuve d'Ascq, 59655, France
| | - Jean-Yves Reynaud
- UMR 8187 CNRS LOG, University of Lille, ULCO, Villeneuve d'Ascq, 59655, France
| | - Kurt O Konhauser
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E3, Canada
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Low-gradient, single-threaded rivers prior to greening of the continents. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:11652-11657. [PMID: 31118286 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1901642116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The Silurian-age rise of land plants is hypothesized to have caused a global revolution in the mechanics of rivers. In the absence of vegetation-controlled bank stabilization effects, pre-Silurian rivers are thought to be characterized by shallow, multithreaded flows, and steep river gradients. This hypothesis, however, is at odds with the pancontinental scale of early Neoproterozoic river systems that would have necessitated extraordinarily high mountains if such river gradients were commonplace at continental scale, which is inconsistent with constraints on lithospheric thickness. To reconcile these observations, we generated estimates of paleogradients and morphologies of pre-Silurian rivers using a well-developed quantitative framework based on the formation of river bars and dunes. We combined data from previous work with original field measurements of the scale, texture, and structure of fluvial deposits in Proterozoic-age Torridonian Group, Scotland-a type-example of pancontinental, prevegetation fluvial systems. Results showed that these rivers were low sloping (gradients 10-5 to 10-4), relatively deep (4 to 15 m), and had morphology similar to modern, lowland rivers. Our results provide mechanistic evidence for the abundance of low gradient, single-threaded rivers in the Proterozoic eon, at a time well before the evolution and radiation of land plants-despite the absence of muddy and vegetated floodplains. Single-threaded rivers with stable floodplains appear to have been a persistent feature of our planet despite singular changes in its terrestrial biota.
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Kleinhans MG, de Vries B, Braat L, van Oorschot M. Living landscapes: Muddy and vegetated floodplain effects on fluvial pattern in an incised river. EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS 2018; 43:2948-2963. [PMID: 30555199 PMCID: PMC6282967 DOI: 10.1002/esp.4437] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2017] [Revised: 05/09/2018] [Accepted: 06/05/2018] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Cohesive floodplain sediment and vegetation are both thought to cause meandering river patterns. Our aims are to compare the isolated and combined effects of mud and vegetation on river planform and morphodynamics in the setting of intermediate-sized valley rivers. We use a numerical model for century-scale simulation of flow, sediment transport and morphology coupled with riparian vegetation settlement, growth and mortality as functions of species traits on which flow resistance depends. Mud fluxes were predicted by excess shear stress relations in combination with the active layer formulation. We found that valley-flooding water levels increase with vegetation density, causing a higher braiding intensity rather than meandering tendency. The shear stress during floods carves channels through the muddy floodplain surface. Higher mud concentration, on the other hand, increases floodplain aggradation, reduces the overbank flow frequency and ultimately causes formation of a single-thread channel. Vegetation causes mud to deposit closer to the river channel as a levee, showing that mud sedimentation and vegetation settling mutually enhance floodplain formation. However, mud and vegetation counteract in two ways. First, vegetation enhances floodplain accretion, which ultimately increases plant desiccation for high mud concentrations. Second, vegetation increases the tendency of periodic chute cutoffs in valleys. The chute cutoffs locally reset the landscape and create new windows of opportunity for the vegetation. Surprisingly, in systems with a high mud concentration this causes hysteretic loops of vegetation cover and delayed mud deposition. Ramifications for the interpretation of Palaeozoic fluvial facies are that even rootless vegetation, capturing cohesive mud closer to the river channel to form thicker floodplain on the point bar, can enhance the tendency to meander and, under high mud supply, form stable channels. However, meandering is more unlikely in narrower valley rivers with higher vegetation density.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Bente de Vries
- Faculty of GeosciencesUtrecht UniversityPrincetonlaan 8A3584 CBUtrecht
| | - Lisanne Braat
- Faculty of GeosciencesUtrecht UniversityPrincetonlaan 8A3584 CBUtrecht
| | - Mijke van Oorschot
- Faculty of GeosciencesUtrecht UniversityPrincetonlaan 8A3584 CBUtrecht
- DeltaresPO Box 1772600 MHDelftThe Netherlands
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Raven JA. How long have photosynthetic organisms been aggregating soils? THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2018; 219:1139-1141. [PMID: 30133846 DOI: 10.1111/nph.15309] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- John A Raven
- Division of Plant Sciences, University of Dundee at the James Hutton Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA, UK
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia (M084), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
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Affiliation(s)
- Woodward W Fischer
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
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