| 1. |
- Canfield, Donald E., et al.
(författare)
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Oxygen dynamics in the aftermath of the Great Oxidation of the Earth’s atmosphere.
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 110:42, s. 16736-16741
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The oxygen content of Earth’s atmosphere has varied greatly through time, progressing from exceptionally low levels before about 2.3 billion years ago, to much higher levels afterward. In the absence of better information, we usually view the progress in Earth’s oxygenation as a series of steps followed by periods of relative stasis. In contrast to this view, and as reported here, a dynamic evolution of Earth’s oxygenation is recorded in ancient sediments from the Republic of Gabon from between about 2,150 and 2,080 million years ago. The oldest sediments in this sequence were deposited in well-oxygenated deep waters whereas the youngest were deposited in euxinic waters, which were globally extensive. These fluctuations in oxygenation were likely driven by the comings and goings of the Lomagundi carbon isotope excursion, the longest–lived positive ?13C excursion in Earth history, generating a huge oxygen source to the atmosphere. As the Lomagundi event waned, the oxygen source became a net oxygen sink as Lomagundi organic matter became oxidized, driving oxygen to low levels; this state may have persisted for 200 million years.
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| 2. |
- Chi Fru, Ernest, et al.
(författare)
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Arsenic stress after the Proterozoic glaciations
- 2015
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Protection against arsenic damage in organisms positioned deep in the tree of life points to early evolutionary sensitization. Here, marine sedimentary records reveal a Proterozoic arsenic concentration patterned to glacial-interglacial ages. The low glacial and high interglacial sedimentary arsenic concentrations, suggest deteriorating habitable marine conditions may have coincided with atmospheric oxygen decline after ~2.1 billion years ago. A similar intensification of near continental margin sedimentary arsenic levels after the Cryogenian glaciations is also associated with amplified continental weathering. However, interpreted atmospheric oxygen increase at this time, suggests that the marine biosphere had widely adapted to the reorganization of global marine elemental cycles by glaciations. Such a glacially induced biogeochemical bridge would have produced physiologically robust communities that enabled increased oxygenation of the ocean-atmosphere system and the radiation of the complex Ediacaran-Cambrian life.
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| 3. |
- Chi Fru, Ernest, et al.
(författare)
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Cu isotopes in marine black shales record the Great Oxidation Event
- 2016
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 113:18, s. 4941-4946
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The oxygenation of the atmosphere similar to 2.45-2.32 billion years ago (Ga) is one of the most significant geological events to have affected Earth's redox history. Our understanding of the timing and processes surrounding this key transition is largely dependent on the development of redox-sensitive proxies, many of which remain unexplored. Here we report a shift from negative to positive copper isotopic compositions (delta Cu-65(ERM-AE633)) in organic carbon-rich shales spanning the period 2.66-2.08 Ga. We suggest that, before 2.3 Ga, a muted oxidative supply of weathering-derived copper enriched in Cu-65, along with the preferential removal of Cu-65 by iron oxides, left seawater and marine biomass depleted in Cu-65 but enriched in Cu-63. As banded iron formation deposition waned and continentally sourced Cu became more important, biomass sampled a dissolved Cu reservoir that was progressively less fractionated relative to the continental pool. This evolution toward heavy delta Cu-65 values coincides with a shift to negative sedimentary delta Fe-56 values and increased marine sulfate after the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), and is traceable through Phanerozoic shales to modern marine settings, where marine dissolved and sedimentary delta Cu-65 values are universally positive. Our finding of an important shift in sedimentary Cu isotope compositions across the GOE provides new insights into the Precambrian marine cycling of this critical micronutrient, and demonstrates the proxy potential for sedimentary Cu isotope compositions in the study of biogeochemical cycles and oceanic redox balance in the past.
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| 4. |
- Chi Fru, Ernest, et al.
(författare)
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Proterozoic arsenic dynamics controlled by glaciations
- 2015
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Ingår i: Abstracts of the 25<sup>th</sup>Goldschmidt Conference, Prague. ; , s. 537-537
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increased chemical weathering of trace elements from land to ocean after the Great Oxidation Event is often correlated to biological stimulation near the ocean margins. However, life had to develop strategies to combat the sudden bioavailability of a range of toxic/redox-sensitive elements that became widely accessible because of the GOE. Here, sedimentary As marine records reveal a cyclic Proterozoic arsenic concentration pattern influenced by glacial-interglacial cycles. Postglacial sedimentary arsenic concentrations suggest deterioration of habitable marine conditions may have coincided with atmospheric oxygen decline after ~2.1 billion years ago (Ga). This changed after ~0.58 Ga when marine biota developed widespread stress responses against postglacial reorganization of global marine elemental cycles, producing physiologically robust communities that enabled increased oxygenation of the atmosphere-ocean system and radiation of complex life.
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| 5. |
- El Albani, Abderrazak, et al.
(författare)
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Large colonial organisms with coordinated growth in oxygenated environments 2.1 Gyr ago
- 2010
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 466:7302, s. 100-104
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The evidence for macroscopic life during the Palaeoproterozoic era (2.5-1.6 Gyr ago) is controversial(1-5). Except for the nearly 2-Gyr-old coil-shaped fossil Grypania spiralis(6,7), which may have been eukaryotic, evidence for morphological and taxonomic bio-diversification of macroorganisms only occurs towards the beginning of the Mesoproterozoic era (1.6-1.0 Gyr)(8). Here we report the discovery of centimetre-sized structures from the 2.1-Gyr-old black shales of the Palaeoproterozoic Francevillian B Formation in Gabon, which we interpret as highly organized and spatially discrete populations of colonial organisms. The structures are up to 12 cm in size and have characteristic shapes, with a simple but distinct ground pattern of flexible sheets and, usually, a permeating radial fabric. Geochemical analyses suggest that the sediments were deposited under an oxygenated water column. Carbon and sulphur isotopic data indicate that the structures were distinct biogenic objects, fossilized by pyritization early in the formation of the rock. The growth patterns deduced from the fossil morphologies suggest that the organisms showed cell-to-cell signalling and coordinated responses, as is commonly associated with multicellular organization(9). The Gabon fossils, occurring after the 2.45-2.32-Gyr increase in atmospheric oxygen concentration(10), may be seen as ancient representatives of multicellular life, which expanded so rapidly 1.5 Gyr later, in the Cambrian explosion.
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| 6. |
- El Albani, Abderrazak, et al.
(författare)
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The 2.1 Ga old Francevillian biota: biogenicity, taphonomy and biodiversity.
- 2014
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 9:6:e99438, s. 1-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Paleoproterozoic Era witnessed crucial steps in the evolution of Earth’s surface environments following the first appreciable rise of free atmospheric oxygen concentrations ~2.3 to 2.1 Ga ago, and concomitant shallow ocean oxygenation. While most sedimentary successions deposited during this time interval have experienced thermal overprinting from burial diagenesis and metamorphism, the ca. 2.1 Ga black shales of the Francevillian B Formation (FB2) cropping out in southeastern Gabon have not. The Francevillian Formation contains centimeter-sized structures interpreted as organized and spatially discrete populations of colonial organisms living in an oxygenated marine ecosystem. Here, new material from the FB2 black shales is presented and analyzed to further explore its biogenicity and taphonomy. Our extended record comprises variably sized, shaped, and structured pyritized macrofossils of lobate, elongated, and rodshaped morphologies as well as abundant non-pyritized disk-shaped macrofossils and organic-walled acritarchs. Combined microtomography, geochemistry, and sedimentary analysis suggest a biota fossilized during early diagenesis. The emergence of this biota follows a rise in atmospheric oxygen, which is consistent with the idea that surface oxygenation allowed the evolution and ecological expansion of complex megascopic life.
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