Burial of organic carbon and pyrite sulfur in sediments over phanerozoic time: a new theory

Berner, Robert A.; Raiswell, R.

doi:10.1016/0016-7037(83)90151-5

Cited by 915 publications

(420 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The molybdenum isotope record (9) indicates a fundamental shift in the redox state of the deep ocean from widespread anoxia to widespread oxygenation sometime during 435-392 Ma (between the Early Silurian and the Middle Devonian). This ocean oxygenation is also supported by a Silurian increase in the C/S ratio of shales (15), and a shift in iron speciation data sometime during 435-387 Ma (6).…”

mentioning

confidence: 67%

Earliest land plants created modern levels of atmospheric oxygen

Lenton

Dahl

Daines

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

266

224

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The progressive oxygenation of the Earth's atmosphere was pivotal to the evolution of life, but the puzzle of when and how atmospheric oxygen (O 2 ) first approached modern levels (∼21%) remains unresolved. Redox proxy data indicate the deep oceans were oxygenated during 435-392 Ma, and the appearance of fossil charcoal indicates O 2 >15-17% by 420-400 Ma. However, existing models have failed to predict oxygenation at this time. Here we show that the earliest plants, which colonized the land surface from ∼470 Ma onward, were responsible for this mid-Paleozoic oxygenation event, through greatly increasing global organic carbon burialthe net long-term source of O 2 . We use a trait-based ecophysiological model to predict that cryptogamic vegetation cover could have achieved ∼30% of today's global terrestrial net primary productivity by ∼445 Ma. Data from modern bryophytes suggests this plentiful early plant material had a much higher molar C:P ratio (∼2,000) than marine biomass (∼100), such that a given weathering flux of phosphorus could support more organic carbon burial. Furthermore, recent experiments suggest that early plants selectively increased the flux of phosphorus (relative to alkalinity) weathered from rocks. Combining these effects in a model of long-term biogeochemical cycling, we reproduce a sustained +2‰ increase in the carbonate carbon isotope (δ 13 C) record by ∼445 Ma, and predict a corresponding rise in O 2 to present levels by 420-400 Ma, consistent with geochemical data. This oxygen rise represents a permanent shift in regulatory regime to one where fire-mediated negative feedbacks stabilize high O 2 levels.oxygen | Paleozoic | phosphorus | plants | weathering

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mentioning

confidence: 67%

Earliest land plants created modern levels of atmospheric oxygen

Lenton

Dahl

Daines

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

266

224

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“…Indeed, there is a well-documented antithetic relationship between sulfate δ 34 S and carbonate δ 13 C values during some long-lived Phanerozoic carbon isotope excursions [e.g., during the Carboniferous (42,45) and the Phanerozoic, in general, on very long time scales (10 7 -to 10 8 -year time scales)]. This relationship has been linked to the mass balance between oxidized and reduced C and S compounds (18,43,(46)(47)(48) through the equation:…”

Section: Sulfur Cycle During the Lomagundi Carbon Isotope Excursionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sulfur record of rising and falling marine oxygen and sulfate levels during the Lomagundi event

Planavsky

Bekker

Hofmann

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

183

130

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Carbonates from approximately 2.3-2.1 billion years ago show markedly positive δ 13 C values commonly reaching and sometimes exceeding þ10‰. Traditional interpretation of these positive δ 13 C values favors greatly enhanced organic carbon burial on a global scale, although other researchers have invoked widespread methanogenesis within the sediments. To resolve between these competing models and, more generally, among the mechanisms behind Earth's most dramatic carbon isotope event, we obtained coupled stable isotope data for carbonate carbon and carbonate-associated sulfate (CAS). CAS from the Lomagundi interval shows a narrow range of δ 34 S values and concentrations much like those of Phanerozoic and modern marine carbonate rocks. The δ 34 S values are a close match to those of coeval sulfate evaporites and likely reflect seawater composition. These observations are inconsistent with the idea of diagenetic carbonate formation in the methanic zone. Toward the end of the carbon isotope excursion there is an increase in the δ 34 S values of CAS. We propose that these trends in C and S isotope values track the isotopic evolution of seawater sulfate and reflect an increase in pyrite burial and a crash in the marine sulfate reservoir during ocean deoxygenation in the waning stages of the positive carbon isotope excursion.Lomagundi excursion | Great Oxidation Event | Precambrian

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“…This implies that sulfate is abundant in seawater and that sulfate-reducing bacteria are ubiquitous in marine environments (Berner and Raiswell 1983). Although the concentration of sulfate in seawater has varied over geological time, being especially low in the Aptian (Early Cretaceous) and the Mesozoic generally, the combination of extensive weathering of evaporites on land and climatic cooling ensures that sulfate concentrations have been high in the Cenozoic since at least the early Eocene (Halevy et al 2012;Wortmann and Paytan 2012).…”

Section: Valve Thicknessmentioning

confidence: 99%

The oyster enigma variations: a hypothesis of microbial calcification

Vermeij¹

2014

Paleobiology

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Oysters, whose inner shell layer contains chambers, vesicles, and sometimes chalky deposits, often have extraordinarily thick shells of large size, prompting the idea that there is something unusual about the process of shell fPormation in these and similarly structured bivalves with the oyster syndrome. I propose the hypothesis that calcifying microbes, especially sulfate-reducing bacteria growing on organic substrates in fluid-filled shell-wall chambers, are responsible for shell calcification away from the shell-secreting mantle of the host bivalve. Other phenomena, including the formation of cameral deposits in fossil cephalopods, the cementation of molluscs and barnacles to hard substrata, the formation of a calcified intriticalx on the shell's exterior, and cementation of objects by gastropods on the shell for camouflage, may also involve calcifying bacteria. Several lines of inquiry are suggested to test these hypotheses.

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Burial of organic carbon and pyrite sulfur in sediments over phanerozoic time: a new theory

Cited by 915 publications

References 16 publications

Earliest land plants created modern levels of atmospheric oxygen

Earliest land plants created modern levels of atmospheric oxygen

Sulfur record of rising and falling marine oxygen and sulfate levels during the Lomagundi event

The oyster enigma variations: a hypothesis of microbial calcification

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