Search

Carbon is an essential element for life on Earth, and the relative abundances of major carbon species (CO2, CO, and CH4) in the atmosphere exert fundamental controls on planetary climate and biogeochemistry. Here, we employed a theoretical model of atmospheric chemistry to investigate diversity in the atmospheric abundances of CO2, CO, and CH4 on Earth-like lifeless planets orbiting Sun-like (F-, G-, and K-type) stars. We focused on the conditions for the formation of a CO-rich atmosphere, which would be favorable for the origin of life. Results demonstrated that elevated atmospheric CO2 levels trigger photochemical instability of the CO budget in the atmosphere (i.e., CO runaway) owing to enhanced CO2 photolysis relative to H2O photolysis. Higher volcanic outgassing fluxes of reduced C (CO and CH4) also tend to initiate CO runaway. Our systematic examinations revealed that anoxic atmospheres of Earth-like lifeless planets could be classified in the phase space of CH4/CO2 versus CO/CO2, where a distinct gap in atmospheric carbon chemistry is expected to be observed. Our findings indicate that the gap structure is a general feature of Earth-like lifeless planets with reducing atmospheres orbiting Sun-like (F-, G-, and K-type) stars.

The possibility of low but nontrivial atmospheric oxygen (O2) levels during the mid-Proterozoic (between 1.8 and 0.8 billion years ago, Ga) has important ramifications for understanding Earth's O2 cycle, the evolution of complex life and evolving climate stability. However, the regulatory mechanisms and redox fluxes required to stabilize these O2 levels in the face of continued biological oxygen production remain uncertain. Here, we develop a biogeochemical model of the C-N-P-O2-S cycles and use it to constrain global redox balance in the mid-Proterozoic ocean-atmosphere system. By employing a Monte Carlo approach bounded by observations from the geologic record, we infer that the rate of net biospheric O2 production was 3.5 (+1.4 - 1.1) Tmol year-1 (1-sigma), or ~25% of today's value, owing largely to phosphorus scarcity in the ocean interior. Pyrite burial in marine sediments would have represented a comparable or more significant O2 source than organic carbon burial, implying a potentially important role for Earth's sulphur cycle in balancing the oxygen cycle and regulating atmospheric O2 levels. Our statistical approach provides a uniquely comprehensive view of Earth system biogeochemistry and global O2 cycling during mid-Proterozoic time and implicates severe P biolimitation as the backdrop for Precambrian geochemical and biological evolution., Comment: Accepted to Geobiology; Final article and Supplementary Information available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gbi.12317

The emergence of oxygenic photosynthesis created a new niche with dramatic potential to transform energy flow through Earth's biosphere. However, more primitive forms of photosynthesis that fix CO2 into biomass using electrons from reduced species like Fe(II) and H2 instead of water would have competed with Earth's early oxygenic biosphere for essential nutrients. Here, we combine experimental microbiology, genomic analyses, and Earth system modeling to demonstrate that competition for light and nutrients in the surface ocean between oxygenic phototrophs and Fe(II)-oxidizing, anoxygenic photosynthesizers (photoferrotrophs) translates into diminished global photosynthetic O2 release when the ocean interior is Fe(II)-rich. These results provide a simple ecophysiological mechanism for inhibiting atmospheric oxygenation during Earth's early history. We also find a novel positive feedback within the coupled C-P-O-Fe cycles that can lead to runaway planetary oxygenation as rising atmospheric pO2 sweeps the deep ocean of the ferrous iron substrate for photoferrotrophy., Comment: Accepted to Nature Communications; Final article and Supplementary Information available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10872-z

The evolution of different forms of photosynthetic life has profoundly altered the activity level of the biosphere, radically reshaping the composition of Earth's oceans and atmosphere over time. However, the mechanistic impacts of a primitive photosynthetic biosphere on Earth's early atmospheric chemistry and climate are poorly understood. Here, we use a global redox balance model to explore the biogeochemical and climatological effects of different forms of primitive photosynthesis. We find that a hybrid ecosystem of H2-based and Fe-based anoxygenic photoautotrophs - organisms that perform photosynthesis without producing oxygen - gives rise to a strong nonlinear amplification of Earth's methane (CH4) cycle, and would thus have represented a critical component of Earth's early climate system before the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis. Using a Monte Carlo approach, we find that a hybrid photosynthetic biosphere widens the range of geochemical conditions that allow for warm climate states well beyond either of these metabolic processes acting in isolation. Our results imply that Earth's early climate was governed by a novel and poorly explored set of regulatory feedbacks linking the anoxic biosphere and the coupled H, C and Fe cycles. We suggest that similar processes should be considered when assessing the potential for sustained habitability on Earth-like planets with reducing atmospheres., Comment: Accepted to Nature Geoscience; Final article and Supplementary Information available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-017-0031-2

Some atmospheric gases have been proposed as counter indicators to the presence of life on an exoplanet if remotely detectable at sufficient abundance (i.e., antibiosignatures), informing the search for biosignatures and potentially fingerprinting uninhabited habitats. However, the quantitative extent to which putative antibiosignatures could exist in the atmospheres of inhabited planets is not well understood. The most commonly referenced potential antibiosignature is CO, because it represents a source of free energy and reduced carbon that is readily exploited by life on Earth and is thus often assumed to accumulate only in the absence of life. Yet, biospheres actively produce CO through biomass burning, photooxidation processes, and release of gases that are photochemically converted into CO in the atmosphere. We demonstrate with a 1D ecosphere-atmosphere model that reducing biospheres can maintain CO levels of ~100 ppmv even at low H2 fluxes due to the impact of hybrid photosynthetic ecosystems. Additionally, we show that photochemistry around M dwarf stars is particularly favorable for the buildup of CO, with plausible concentrations for inhabited, oxygen-rich planets extending from hundreds of ppm to several percent. Since CH4 buildup is also favored on these worlds, and because O2 and O3 are likely not detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope, the presence of high CO (>100 ppmv) may discriminate between oxygen-rich and reducing biospheres with near-future transmission observations. These results suggest that spectroscopic detection of CO can be compatible with the presence of life and that a comprehensive contextual assessment is required to validate the significance of potential antibiosignatures., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Published Open Access in ApJ

Thousands of planets beyond our solar system have been discovered to date, dozens of which are rocky in composition and are orbiting within the circumstellar habitable zone of their host star. The next frontier in life detection beyond our solar system will be detailed characterization of the atmospheres of potentially habitable worlds, resulting in a pressing need to develop a comprehensive understanding of the factors controlling the emergence and maintenance of atmospheric biosignatures. Understanding Earth system evolution is central to this pursuit, and a refined understanding of Earth's evolution can provide substantive insight into observational and interpretive frameworks in exoplanet science. Using this framework, we argue here that UV observations can help to effectively mitigate 'false positive' scenarios for oxygen-based biosignatures, while 'false negative' scenarios potentially represent a significant problem for biosignature surveys lacking UV capability. Moving forward, we suggest that well-resolved UV observations will be critical for near-term volume-limited surveys of habitable planets orbiting nearby Sun-like stars, and will provide the potential for biosignature detection across the most diverse spectrum of reducing, weakly oxygenated, and oxic habitable terrestrial planets., Comment: White paper submitted in response to the solicitation of feedback for the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics (Astro 2020) by the National Academy of Sciences