Fundamentals of Geobiology

2012 PROSE Award, Earth Science: Honorable Mention For more than fifty years scientists have been concerned with the interrelationships of Earth and life. Over the past decade, however, geobiology, the name given to this interdisciplinary endeavour, has emerged as an exciting and rapidly expanding field, fuelled by advances in molecular phylogeny, a new microbial ecology made possible by the molecular revolution, increasingly sophisticated new techniques for imaging and determining chemical compositions of solids on nanometer scales, the development of non-traditional stable isotope analyses, Earth systems science and Earth system history, and accelerating exploration of other planets within and beyond our solar system. Geobiology has many faces: there is the microbial weathering of minerals, bacterial and skeletal biomineralization, the roles of autotrophic and heterotrophic metabolisms in elemental cycling, the redox history in the oceans and its relationship to evolution and the origin of life itself.. This book is the first to set out a coherent set of principles that underpin geobiology, and will act as a foundational text that will speed the dissemination of those principles. The chapters have been carefully chosen to provide intellectually rich but concise summaries of key topics, and each has been written by one or more of the leading scientists in that field.. Fundamentals of Geobiology is aimed at advanced undergraduates and graduates in the Earth and biological sciences, and to the growing number of scientists worldwide who have an interest in this burgeoning new discipline. Additional resources for this book can be found at: href="http://www.wiley.com/go/knoll/geobiology">http://www.wiley.com/go/knoll/geobiology.

Auteur

Andrew H. Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History
at Harvard University. A paleontologist by training, he has worked
for three decades to understand the environmental history of Earth
and, more recently, Mars. Knoll is a member of the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences.

Donald E. Canfield is Professor of Ecology at the
University of Southern Denmark and Director of the Nordic Center
for Earth Evolution (NordCEE). Canfield uses the study of modern
microbes and microbial ecosystems to understand the evolution of
Earth surface chemistry and biology through time. Canfield is a
member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Kurt O. Konhauser is a Professor of Geomicrobiology at
the University of Alberta. He is Editor-in-Chief for the journal,
Geobiology, and author of the textbook, Introduction to
Geomicrobiology. His research focuses on metal-mineral-microbe
interactions in both modern and ancient environments.

Résumé
2012 PROSE Award, Earth Science: Honorable Mention

For more than fifty years scientists have been concerned with the interrelationships of Earth and life. Over the past decade, however, geobiology, the name given to this interdisciplinary endeavour, has emerged as an exciting and rapidly expanding field, fuelled by advances in molecular phylogeny, a new microbial ecology made possible by the molecular revolution, increasingly sophisticated new techniques for imaging and determining chemical compositions of solids on nanometer scales, the development of non-traditional stable isotope analyses, Earth systems science and Earth system history, and accelerating exploration of other planets within and beyond our solar system. Geobiology has many faces: there is the microbial weathering of minerals, bacterial and skeletal biomineralization, the roles of autotrophic and heterotrophic metabolisms in elemental cycling, the redox history in the oceans and its relationship to evolution and the origin of life itself..

This book is the first to set out a coherent set of principles that underpin geobiology, and will act as a foundational text that will speed the dissemination of those principles. The chapters have been carefully chosen to provide intellectually rich but concise summaries of key topics, and each has been written by one or more of the leading scientists in that field..

Fundamentals of Geobiology is aimed at advanced undergraduates and graduates in the Earth and biological sciences, and to the growing number of scientists worldwide who have an interest in this burgeoning new discipline.

Additional resources for this book can be found at: http://www.wiley.com/go/knoll/geobiology.

Contenu
Contributors, xi **1. What is Geobiology?, 1
Andrew H. Knoll, Donald E. Canfield, and Kurt O. Konhauser

1.1 Introduction, 1

1.2 Life interacting with the Earth, 2

1.3 Pattern and process in geobiology, 2

1.4 New horizons in geobiology, 3

**2. The Global Carbon Cycle: Biological Processes, 5
Paul G. Falkowski

2.1 Introduction, 5

2.2 A brief primer on redox reactions, 5

2.3 Carbon as a substrate for biological reactions, 5

2.4 The evolution of photosynthesis, 8

2.5 The evolution of oxygenic phototrophs, 11

2.6 Net primary production, 13

2.7 What limits NPP on land and in the ocean?, 15

2.8 Is NPP in balance with respiration?, 16

2.9 Conclusions and extensions, 17

**3. The Global Carbon Cycle: Geological Processes, 20
Klaus Wallmann and Giovanni Aloisi

3.1 Introduction, 20

3.2 Organic carbon cycling, 20

3.3 Carbonate cycling, 22

3.4 Mantle degassing, 23

3.5 Metamorphism, 24

3.6 Silicate weathering, 24

3.7 Feedbacks, 25

3.8 Balancing the geological carbon cycle, 26

3.9 Evolution of the geological carbon cycle through Earth's history: proxies and models, 27

3.10 The geological C cycle through time, 30

3.11 Limitations and perspectives, 32

**4. The Global Nitrogen Cycle, 36
Bess Ward

4.1 Introduction, 36

4.2 Geological nitrogen cycle, 36

4.3 Components of the global nitrogen cycle, 38

4.4 Nitrogen redox chemistry, 40

4.5 Biological reactions of the nitrogen cycle, 40

4.6 Atmospheric nitrogen chemistry, 45

4.7 Summary and areas for future research, 46

**5. The Global Sulfur Cycle, 49
Donald E. Canfield and James Farquhar

5.1 Introduction, 49

5.2 The global sulfur cycle from two perspectives, 49

5.3 The evolution of S metabolisms, 53

5.4 The interaction of S with other biogeochemical cycles, 55

5.5 The evolution of the S cycle, 59

5.6 Closing remarks, 61

**6. The Global Iron Cycle, 65
Brian Kendall, Ariel D. Anbar, Andreas Kappler and Kurt O. Konhauser

6.1 Overview, 65

6.2 The inorganic geochemistry of iron: redox and reservoirs, 65

6.3 Iron in modern biology and biogeochemical cycles, 69

6.4 Iron through time, 73

6.5 Summary, 83

**7. The Global Oxygen Cycle, 93
James F. Kasting and Donald E. Canfield

7.1 Introduction, 93

7.2 The chemistry and biochemistry of oxygen, 93

7.3 The concept of redox balance, 94

7.4 The modern O2 cycle, 94

7.5 Cycling of O2 and H2 on the early Earth, 98

7.6 Synthesis: speculations about the timing and cause of the rise of atmospheric O2, 102

**8. Bacterial Biomineralization, 105
Kurt Konhauser and Robert Riding

8.1 Introduction, 105

8.2 Mineral nucleation and growth, 105

8.3 How bacteria facilitate biomineralization, 106

8.4 Iron oxyhydroxides, 111

8.5 Calcium carbonates, 116

**9. MineralOrganicMicrobe Interfacial Chemistry, 131
David J. Vaughan and Jonathan R. Lloyd

9.1 Introduction, 131

9.2 The mineral surface (and mineralbio interface) and techniques for its study, 131

9.3 Mineral-organic-microbe interfacial processes: some key examples, 140

**10. Eukaryotic Skeletal Formation, 150
Adam F. Wallace, Dongbo Wang, Laura M. Hamm, Andrew H. Knoll and Patricia M. Dove

10.1 Introduction, 150

10.2 Mineralization by unicellular organisms, 151

10.3 Mineralization by mult…