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The evolutionary consequences of oxygenic photosynthesis: a body size perspective

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Abstract

The high concentration of molecular oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere is arguably the most conspicuous and geologically important signature of life. Earth’s early atmosphere lacked oxygen; accumulation began after the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis in cyanobacteria around 3.0–2.5 billion years ago (Gya). Concentrations of oxygen have since varied, first reaching near-modern values ~600 million years ago (Mya). These fluctuations have been hypothesized to constrain many biological patterns, among them the evolution of body size. Here, we review the state of knowledge relating oxygen availability to body size. Laboratory studies increasingly illuminate the mechanisms by which organisms can adapt physiologically to the variation in oxygen availability, but the extent to which these findings can be extrapolated to evolutionary timescales remains poorly understood. Experiments confirm that animal size is limited by experimental hypoxia, but show that plant vegetative growth is enhanced due to reduced photorespiration at lower O2:CO2. Field studies of size distributions across extant higher taxa and individual species in the modern provide qualitative support for a correlation between animal and protist size and oxygen availability, but few allow prediction of maximum or mean size from oxygen concentrations in unstudied regions. There is qualitative support for a link between oxygen availability and body size from the fossil record of protists and animals, but there have been few quantitative analyses confirming or refuting this impression. As oxygen transport limits the thickness or volume-to-surface area ratio—rather than mass or volume—predictions of maximum possible size cannot be constructed simply from metabolic rate and oxygen availability. Thus, it remains difficult to confirm that the largest representatives of fossil or living taxa are limited by oxygen transport rather than other factors. Despite the challenges of integrating findings from experiments on model organisms, comparative observations across living species, and fossil specimens spanning millions to billions of years, numerous tractable avenues of research could greatly improve quantitative constraints on the role of oxygen in the macroevolutionary history of organismal size.

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Abbreviations

PAL:

Present atmospheric level (of oxygen)

Mya:

Millions of years ago

Gya:

Billions of years ago

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Acknowledgments

This review is a product of the working group on body size evolution (principal investigators JLP, JAS, and MK) funded by the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), National Science Foundation Grant EF-0423641. P. Falkowski, P. Harnik, J. Skotheim, and N. Sleep provided comments that greatly improved the manuscript. We thank G.X. Rothdrake for correcting the body size estimate of the Ordovician cephalopod.

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  1. Seth Finnegan

    Present address: Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Bldg. 320, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Jonathan L. Payne & Seth Finnegan

  2. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), 2024 W. Main St., Suite A200, Durham, NC, 27705, USA

    Craig R. McClain

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 165 Prospect St., New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

    Alison G. Boyer

  4. Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

    James H. Brown & Felisa A. Smith

  5. Department of Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Michał Kowalewski

  6. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, PO Box 208109, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA

    Richard A. Krause Jr.

  7. Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 20560, USA

    S. Kathleen Lyons

  8. Department of Biology, Duke University, Box 90338, Durham, NC, 27708, USA

    Daniel W. McShea

  9. Department of Biological Sciences, Benedictine University, 5700 College Ave., Lisle, IL, 60532, USA

    Philip M. Novack-Gottshall

  10. Natural Resources Department, Northland College, 1411 Ellis Ave., Ashland, WI, 54806, USA

    Paula Spaeth

  11. Department of Geology, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA, 24450, USA

    Jennifer A. Stempien

  12. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, PA, 19081, USA

    Steve C. Wang

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Payne, J.L., McClain, C.R., Boyer, A.G. et al. The evolutionary consequences of oxygenic photosynthesis: a body size perspective. Photosynth Res 107, 37–57 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-010-9593-1

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