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The Great Oxygenation Event as a consequence of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change

The Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), ca. 2.4 billion years ago, transformed life and environments on Earth. Its causes, however, are debated. We mathematically analyze the GOE in terms of ecological dynamics coupled with a changing Earth. Anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria initially dominate over cyan...

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Autores principales: Olejarz, Jason, Iwasa, Yoh, Knoll, Andrew H., Nowak, Martin A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8238953/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34183660
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23286-7
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author Olejarz, Jason
Iwasa, Yoh
Knoll, Andrew H.
Nowak, Martin A.
author_facet Olejarz, Jason
Iwasa, Yoh
Knoll, Andrew H.
Nowak, Martin A.
author_sort Olejarz, Jason
collection PubMed
description The Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), ca. 2.4 billion years ago, transformed life and environments on Earth. Its causes, however, are debated. We mathematically analyze the GOE in terms of ecological dynamics coupled with a changing Earth. Anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria initially dominate over cyanobacteria, but their success depends on the availability of suitable electron donors that are vulnerable to oxidation. The GOE is triggered when the difference between the influxes of relevant reductants and phosphate falls below a critical value that is an increasing function of the reproductive rate of cyanobacteria. The transition can be either gradual and reversible or sudden and irreversible, depending on sources and sinks of oxygen. Increasing sources and decreasing sinks of oxygen can also trigger the GOE, but this possibility depends strongly on migration of cyanobacteria from privileged sites. Our model links ecological dynamics to planetary change, with geophysical evolution determining the relevant time scales.
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spelling pubmed-82389532021-07-20 The Great Oxygenation Event as a consequence of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change Olejarz, Jason Iwasa, Yoh Knoll, Andrew H. Nowak, Martin A. Nat Commun Article The Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), ca. 2.4 billion years ago, transformed life and environments on Earth. Its causes, however, are debated. We mathematically analyze the GOE in terms of ecological dynamics coupled with a changing Earth. Anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria initially dominate over cyanobacteria, but their success depends on the availability of suitable electron donors that are vulnerable to oxidation. The GOE is triggered when the difference between the influxes of relevant reductants and phosphate falls below a critical value that is an increasing function of the reproductive rate of cyanobacteria. The transition can be either gradual and reversible or sudden and irreversible, depending on sources and sinks of oxygen. Increasing sources and decreasing sinks of oxygen can also trigger the GOE, but this possibility depends strongly on migration of cyanobacteria from privileged sites. Our model links ecological dynamics to planetary change, with geophysical evolution determining the relevant time scales. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-06-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8238953/ /pubmed/34183660 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23286-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Olejarz, Jason
Iwasa, Yoh
Knoll, Andrew H.
Nowak, Martin A.
The Great Oxygenation Event as a consequence of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change
title The Great Oxygenation Event as a consequence of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change
title_full The Great Oxygenation Event as a consequence of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change
title_fullStr The Great Oxygenation Event as a consequence of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change
title_full_unstemmed The Great Oxygenation Event as a consequence of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change
title_short The Great Oxygenation Event as a consequence of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change
title_sort great oxygenation event as a consequence of ecological dynamics modulated by planetary change
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8238953/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34183660
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23286-7
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