Great Oxygenation Period (~2.4 BYA)
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A Great Oxygenation Period (~2.4 BYA) is a mass extinction period and biological transition event that was commenced by the appearance of great oxygenation photosynthesizing life forms and resulted in fundamental great oxygenation atmospheric composition changes.
- AKA: Great Oxygenation Event, Oxygen Catastrophe, Oxygen Crisis, Great Oxidation, Oxygen Revolution, GOE, Cyanobacteria-due Extinction Period.
- Context:
- It can typically be attributed to have occurred ~2.4 billion years ago during the Paleoproterozoic Era, representing one of the most significant great oxygenation environmental changes in Earth's history.
- It can typically be associated with the evolutionary emergence of cyanobacteria that performed oxygenic photosynthesis, releasing free oxygen as a metabolic waste product.
- It can typically be identified through great oxygenation geological evidence including banded iron formations, great oxygenation redox-sensitive element distributions, and sulfur isotope composition changes.
- It can typically be characterized by the saturation of great oxygenation oxygen sinks such as dissolved iron and organic matter that previously prevented atmospheric oxygen accumulation.
- It can typically be recognized as a major evolutionary bottleneck that caused mass extinction of most obligate anaerobic organisms unable to tolerate oxygen toxicity.
- ...
- It can often be associated with triggering the Huronian glaciation, a prolonged snowball Earth episode, due to the oxidation of atmospheric methane that reduced this powerful greenhouse gas.
- It can often be identified through great oxygenation biomarker evidence in the fossil record indicating shifts in microbial community composition.
- It can often be studied through great oxygenation chromium isotope analyses that provide evidence of great oxygenation atmospheric oxygen levels.
- It can often be considered a great oxygenation mass extinction that eliminated many anaerobic species while creating evolutionary opportunity for aerobic life forms.
- It can often be viewed as a great oxygenation biologically-induced environmental catastrophe representing one of the first examples of life-driven planetary change.
- ...
- It can range from being a Rapid Great Oxygenation Period to being a Gradual Great Oxygenation Period, depending on its great oxygenation temporal progression.
- It can range from being a Simple Great Oxygenation Period to being a Complex Great Oxygenation Period, depending on its great oxygenation ecological impact complexity.
- It can range from being a Minor Great Oxygenation Period to being a Major Great Oxygenation Period, depending on its great oxygenation biodiversity impact.
- It can range from being a Localized Great Oxygenation Period to being a Global Great Oxygenation Period, depending on its great oxygenation geographical extent.
- ...
- It can provide insights into how biological innovations can fundamentally alter planetary conditions and create extinction pressures.
- It can demonstrate great oxygenation biological feedback loops between evolutionary development and atmospheric composition.
- It can represent a critical transition point in Earth's biogeochemical history that established the foundation for all subsequent aerobic life.
- It can reveal patterns of biological adaptation to environmental toxins that inform our understanding of evolutionary resilience.
- It can be considered a natural experiment in mass extinction recovery following a biologically-driven catastrophe.
- ...
- Examples:
- Great Oxygenation Period Evidence Types, such as:
- Great Oxygenation Period Geological Evidences, such as:
- Great Oxygenation Period Banded Iron Formations, where iron oxide precipitation in ancient oceans indicates rising oxygen levels.
- Great Oxygenation Period Mass-Independent Fractionation of Sulfur Isotopes, which disappear from the geological record around 2.4 BYA due to ozone layer formation.
- Great Oxygenation Period Redox-Sensitive Element Distributions in sedimentary rocks showing shifts in oxidation state.
- Great Oxygenation Period Biological Evidences, such as:
- Great Oxygenation Period Microfossil Records showing changes in microbial community structure.
- Great Oxygenation Period Biomarkers indicating shifts from anaerobic metabolism to aerobic metabolism.
- Great Oxygenation Period Atmospheric Evidences, such as:
- Great Oxygenation Period Carbon Isotope Excursions indicating changes in the global carbon cycle.
- Great Oxygenation Period Chromium Isotope Signatures suggesting atmospheric oxygen concentrations of at most 0.1% of present levels.
- Great Oxygenation Period Geological Evidences, such as:
- Great Oxygenation Period Impact Categories, such as:
- Great Oxygenation Period Biological Impacts, such as:
- Great Oxygenation Period Anaerobic Extinctions across multiple microbial phyla unable to adapt to oxidative stress.
- Great Oxygenation Period Aerobic Radiations creating new evolutionary opportunitys for oxygen-tolerant organisms.
- Great Oxygenation Period Metabolic Innovations including new biochemical pathways for oxygen utilization.
- Great Oxygenation Period Environmental Impacts, such as:
- Great Oxygenation Period Climate Alterations through methane oxidation and resulting global cooling.
- Great Oxygenation Period Oceanic Chemistry Changes including reduced dissolved iron and increased sulfate concentrations.
- Great Oxygenation Period Atmospheric Composition Shifts from reducing atmosphere to oxidizing atmosphere.
- Great Oxygenation Period Biological Impacts, such as:
- Great Oxygenation Period Temporal Phases, such as:
- Early Great Oxygenation Period (~2.5-2.4 BYA), characterized by initial oxygen production and oxygen sink saturation.
- Peak Great Oxygenation Period (~2.4-2.3 BYA), when atmospheric oxygen levels first rose significantly and caused maximum biological disruption.
- Late Great Oxygenation Period (~2.3-2.1 BYA), when biological adaptations to oxygen presence began to stabilize new ecosystem balances.
- Post-Great Oxygenation Period (~2.1-1.8 BYA), when Earth systems reached a new equilibrium state with permanently higher oxygen levels.
- ...
- Great Oxygenation Period Evidence Types, such as:
- Counter-Examples:
- Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event (~750-540 MYA), which was a second major oxygen increase much later in Earth's history that created conditions for animal evolution rather than representing the first atmospheric oxygenation.
- Cambrian Explosion (~540-520 MYA), which was a period of rapid biodiversity increase rather than a mass extinction event.
- Volcanic-Driven Mass Extinctions, which result from geological processes rather than biological innovations and typically cause atmospheric oxygen decreases rather than increases.
- Asteroid Impact Mass Extinctions, which are caused by extraterrestrial impacts rather than biological processes and occur much more rapidly than the Great Oxygenation Period.
- Anthropogenic Climate Change, which represents a human-caused environmental alteration rather than a naturally evolved biological process.
- See: Mass Extinction Period, Oxygen, Cyanobacteria, Photosynthesis, Obligate Anaerobe, Cyanobacteria Emergence Period, Huronian Glaciation, Banded Iron Formation, Snowball Earth, Biogeochemical Cycle, Evolutionary Bottleneck, Mass Extinction Event, Earth's Atmosphere, Paleoproterozoic Era, Microbial Evolution, Oxidative Stress, Redox Chemistry, Geological Time Scale, Isotope Geochemistry.
References
2014
- (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event Retrieved:2014-2-22.
- The Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), also called the Oxygen Catastrophe, Oxygen Crisis, the Oxygen Revolution, or Great Oxidation, was the biologically induced appearance of free oxygen (O2) in Earth's atmosphere. Geological, isotopic, and chemical evidence suggest this major environmental change happened around 2.4 billion years ago (2.4 Ga).[1]
Cyanobacteria, which appeared about 200 million years before the GOE,[2] began producing oxygen by photosynthesis. Before the GOE, any free oxygen they produced was chemically captured by dissolved iron or organic matter. The GOE was the point when these oxygen sinks became saturated and could not capture all of the oxygen that was produced by cyanobacterial photosynthesis. After the GOE the excess free oxygen started to accumulate in the atmosphere.
Free oxygen is toxic to obligate anaerobic organisms and the rising concentrations may have wiped out most of the Earth's anaerobic inhabitants at the time. Cyanobacteria were therefore responsible for one of the most significant extinction events in Earth's history. Additionally the free oxygen reacted with the atmospheric methane, a greenhouse gas, reducing its concentration and thereby triggering the Huronian glaciation, possibly the longest snowball Earth episode. Free oxygen has been an important constituent of the atmosphere ever since.[3]
- The Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), also called the Oxygen Catastrophe, Oxygen Crisis, the Oxygen Revolution, or Great Oxidation, was the biologically induced appearance of free oxygen (O2) in Earth's atmosphere. Geological, isotopic, and chemical evidence suggest this major environmental change happened around 2.4 billion years ago (2.4 Ga).[1]
- ↑ Template:Cite news
- ↑ Flannery, D. T.; R.M. Walter (2012). "Archean tufted microbial mats and the Great Oxidation Event: new insights into an ancient problem". Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 59 (1): 1–11. Bibcode 2012AuJES..59....1F. doi:10.1080/08120099.2011.607849.
- ↑ Template:Cite doi
2014
- Noah J. Planavsky, Christopher T. Reinhard, Xiangli Wang, Danielle Thomson, Peter McGoldrick, Robert H. Rainbird, Thomas Johnson, Woodward W. Fischer, and Timothy W. Lyons. (2014). “Low Mid-Proterozoic atmospheric oxygen levels and the delayed rise of animals". In: Science, 346(6209) doi:10.1126/science.1258410
- QUOTE: The oxygenation of Earth’s surface fundamentally altered global biogeochemical cycles and ultimately paved the way for the rise of metazoans at the end of the Proterozoic. However, current estimates for atmospheric oxygen (O2) levels during the billion years leading up to this time vary widely. On the basis of chromium (Cr) isotope data from a suite of Proterozoic sediments from China, Australia, and North America, interpreted in the context of data from similar depositional environments from Phanerozoic time, we find evidence for inhibited oxidation of Cr at Earth’s surface in the mid-Proterozoic (1.8 to 0.8 billion years ago). These data suggest that atmospheric O2 levels were at most 0.1% of present atmospheric levels. Direct evidence for such low O2 concentrations in the Proterozoic helps explain the late emergence and diversification of metazoans.