Title: Interactions between Geosphere and Biosphere: CoEvolution of Environment and Life
1Interactions between Geosphere and
BiosphereCo-Evolution of Environment and Life
Lee Kump Department of Geosciences Earth and
Environmental Systems Institute NASA Astrobiology
Institute Penn State University
Glynn Gorick
2The Gaia Hypothesis
Lynn Margulis
Jim Lovelock
- Earth is a self-regulating system comprising the
biota and the physical world, capable of
maintaining a habitable planet.
3Corollary
Lynn Margulis
Jim Lovelock
- Earth is habitable today because it had been
inhabited since nearly its birth.
4Goldilocks problem
5(No Transcript)
6Where did all the carbon go?
7How did Earth avoid the fate of Mars?
http//www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/
mgs_oct_pics_011107.html
8Saved by plate tectonics, recycling
Berner (1999, GSA Today 9 (11)1-6)
9 Rise of Atmospheric Oxygen
Courtesy K. Yamaguchi (PSU)
10Kump (2008)
11Why did atmospheric O2 rise at 2.4 billion years
ago?
- This is when cyanobacteria invented oxygenic
photosynthesis - (but chemical fossils of cyanobacteria at 2.7
Ga, possible fossils at 3.5 Ga) -
12Early Earth
13Why did atmospheric O2 rise at 2.4 billion years
ago?
- This is when cyanobacteria invented oxygenic
photosynthesis - Cyanobacteria evolved oxygenic photosynthesis
2.7 Ga, but O2 sinks exceeded sources until 2.4
Ga -
14Mass Extinctions
Alroy, pers. comm.
15Siberian Traps Volcanism (Torsvik, pers. comm.)
16Reichow et al. (2009) and Svensen et al(2009)
17H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
5,000 years
18H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
10,000 years
19H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
15,000 years
20H2S concentration (?mol/kg)
H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
20,000 years
21H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
25,000 years
22H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
30,000 years
23H2S concentration (?mol/kg)
H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
35,000 years
24H2S concentration (?mol/kg)
H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
40,000 years
25H2S concentration (?mol/kg)
H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
45,000 years
26H2S concentration (?mol/kg)
H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
50,000 years
27H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
55,000 years
28H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
60,000 years
29H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
65,000 years
30H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
70,000 years
31H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
75,000 years
32H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
80,000 years
33H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
85,000 years
34H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
90,000 years
35H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
95,000 years
36H2S concentration (µmol/kg)
0 5 10
100,000 years
37P. Ward (Sci Am. 2006)
38Continental Drift
www.scotese.com
39Zachos et al. (2001, Science 292 686-693)
40(No Transcript)
41Ancient Earth landscape?
Late Ordovician landscape? Or Iceland today?
http//www.palaeos.com/Plants/Bryophyta/Bryophyta.
html