Abstract
Key steps in atmospheric evolution occurred in the Archaean. The Hadean atmosphere was created by the inorganic processes of volatile accretion from space and degassing from the interior, and then modified by chemical and photochemical processes. The air was probably initially anoxic, though there may have been a supply of oxidation power as a consequence of hydrodynamic escape to space of hydrogen from water. Early subduction may have removed CO2 and the Hadean planet may have been icy. In the Archaean, as anoxygenic and then oxygenic photosynthesis evolved, biological activity remade the atmosphere. Sedimentological evidence implies there were liquid oceans despite the faint young Sun. These oceans may have been sustained by the greenhouse warming effect of biologically-made methane. Oxygenesis in the late Archaean would have released free O2 into the water. This would have created oxic surface waters, challenging the methane greenhouse. After the Great Oxidation Event around 2.3 to 2.4 billion years ago, the atmosphere itself became oxic, perhaps triggering a glacial crisis by cutting methane-caused greenhouse warming. By the early Proterozoic, all the key biochemical processes that maintain the modern atmosphere were probably present in the microbial community.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Goldblatt C, Zahnle K J, Sleep N H, et al. The eons of Chaos and Hades. Solid Earth, 2010, 1: 1–3
Zahnle K J, Arndt N T, Cockell C, et al. Emergence of a habitable planet. Space Sci Rev, 2007, 129: 35–78
Nisbet E G, Sleep N H. The habitat and nature of early life. Nature, 2001, 409: 1083–1091
Nisbet E G, Nisbet R E R. Methane, oxygen, photosynthesis, rubisco and the regulation of the air through time. Philos Trans Roy Soc Lond B, 2008, 363: 2745–2754
Canfield D E. The early history of atmospheric oxygen. Annu Rev Earth Planet Sci, 2005, 33: 1–36
Goldblatt C, Matthews A J, Lenton T M, et al. The global nitrogen budget and the Faint Young Sun paradox. Eos Trans AGU, 2008, 89(Suppl): 33D–02
Buick R. When did oxygenic photosynthesis evolve? Philos Trans Roy Soc Lond B, 2008, 363: 2731–2744
Nisbet E G, Grassineau N V, Howe C J, et al. The age of Rubisco: The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. Geobiology, 2007, 5: 311–335
Nisbet E G, Cann J R, van Dover C L. Origins of photosynthesis. Nature, 1995, 373: 479–480
Nisbet E G, Jones S M, Maclennan J, et al. Kick-starting ancient warming: Triggering the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum: The Kilda capacitor hypothesis. Nat Geosci, 2009, 2: 156–159
Tabita F R, Hanson T E, Satagopan S, et al. Phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships of RubisCO and the RubisCO-like proteins and the functional lessons provided by diverse molecular forms. Phil Trans R Soc B, 2008, 363: 2629–2640
Halliday A N. In the beginning. Nature, 2001, 409: 144–145
Sleep N H, Zahnle K, Neuhoff P S. Initiation of clement surface conditions on the earliest Earth. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2001, 98: 3666–3672
Compston W, Pidgeon R T. Jack Hills, evidence of more very old detrital zircons in Western Australia. Nature, 1986, 321: 766–769
Valley J W, Peck W H, King E M. A cool early Earth. Geology, 2002, 30: 351–354
Ryder G. Mass flux in the ancient Earth-Moon system and benign implications for the origin of life on Earth. J Geophys Res, 2002, 107: 5022
Bowring S A, Williams I S. Priscoan (4.00–4.03 Ga) orthogneisses from northwestern Canada. Contrib Mineral Petrol, 1999, 134: 3–16
Rosing M T. 13C-depleted carbon in >3700 Ma seafloor sedimentary rocks from West Greenland. Science, 1999, 283: 674–676
Grassineau N V, Abell P, Appel P W U, et al. Early life signatures in sulphur and carbon isotopes from Isua, Barberton, Wabigoon (Steep Rock) and Belingwe greenstone belts (3.8 to 2.7 Ga). In: Kesler S E, Ohmoto H, eds. Evolution of Early Earth’s Atmosphere, Hydrosphere and Biosphere—Constraints from Ore Deposits. Geol Soc Am Spec Pub, 2006, 198: 33–52
Allwood A C, Walter M R, Kamber B S, et al. Stromatolite reef from the Early Archaean era of Australia. Nature, 2006, 441: 714–718
Tice M M, Lowe D R. Photosynthetic microbial mats in the 3416-Myr-old Ocean. Nature, 2004, 431: 549–552
Rosing M T, Frei R. U-rich Archaean sea-floor sediments from Greenland — indications of >3700 Ma oxygenic photosynthesis. Earth Planet Sci Lett, 2004, 6907: 1–8
Hessler A M, Lowe D R, Jones R L, et al. A lower limit for atmospheric carbon dioxide levels 3.2 billion years ago. Nature, 2004, 428: 736–738
Farquhar J, Wing B A. Multiple sulfur isotopes and the evolution of the atmosphere. Earth Planet Sci Lett, 2003, 213: 1–13
Lowe D R, Tice M M. Tectonic controls on atmospheric, climatic and biological evolution 3.5–2.4 Ga. Precambrian Res, 2007, 158: 177–197
Wilks M E, Nisbet E G. Archaean stromatolites from the Steep Rock Group, N.W. Ontario. Can J Earth Sci, 1985, 22: 792–799
Eglington B M, Talma A S, Marais S, et al. Isotopic composition of Pongola Supergroup limestones from the Buffalo River gorge, South Africa. South Afr J Geol, 2003, 106: 1–10
Abell P I, McClory J, Martin A, et al. Petrography and stable isotope ratios from Archean stromatolites, Mushandike Fm., Zimbabwe. Precambrian Res, 1985, 27: 385–398
Siebert C, Kramers J D, Meisel T, et al. PGE, Re-Os, and Mo isotope systematics in Archean and early Proterozoic sedimentary systems as proxies for redox conditions of the early Earth. Geochim Cosmochim Acta, 2005, 69: 1787–1801
Ohmoto H, Watanabe Y, Ikemi H, et al. Sulphur isotope evidence for an oxic Archaean atmosphere. Nature, 2006, 442: 908–911
Grassineau N V, Nisbet E G, Fowler C M R, et al. Stable isotopes in the Archaean Belingwe belt, Zimbabwe: Evidence for a diverse microbial mat ecology. In: Fowler C M R, Ebinger C J, Hawkesworth C J, eds. The Early Earth: Physical, Chemical and Biological Development. Geol Soc London Spec Pub, 2002, 199: 309–328
Brocks J J, Buick R, Summons R E, et al. A reconstruction of Archean biological diversity based on molecular fossils from the 2.78 to 2.45 billion-year-old Mount Bruce Supergroup, Hamersley basin, Western Australia. Geochim Cosmochim Acta, 2003, 67: 4321–4335
Summons R E, Jahnke L L, Hope J M, et al. 2-Methylhopanoids as biomarkers for cyanobacterial oxygenic photosynthesis. Nature, 1999, 400: 554–557
Kopp R E, Kirschvink J L, Hilburn I A, et al. The Paleoproterozoic snowball Earth: A climate disaster triggered by the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2005, 102: 11131–11136
Lovelock J. The Ages of Gaia. New York: W W Norton, 1988. 252
Rosing M T, Bird D K, Sleep N H, et al. No climate paradox under the faint early Sun. Nature, 2010, 464: 744–747
Kharecha P, Kasting J, Siefert J. A coupled atmosphere-ecosystem model of the early Archean Earth. Geobiology, 2005, 3: 53–76
Tcherkez G G B, Farquhar G D, Andrews T J. Despite slow catalysis and confused substrate specificity, all ribulose bisphospahte carboxylases may be nearly perfectly optimized. Proc Natl Acad Sci, 2006, 103: 7246–7251
Gutteridge S, Pierce J. A unified theory for the basis of the limitations of the primary reaction of photosynthetic CO2 fixation: Was Dr. Pangloss right? Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2006, 103: 7203–7204
Tolbert N E, Benker C, Beck E. The oxygen and carbon dioxide compensation points of C3 plants: Possible role in regulating atmospheric oxygen. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 1995, 92: 11230–11233
Ueno Y, Johnson M S, Danielache S D, et al. Geological sulfur isotopes indicate elevated OCS in the Archean atmosphere, solving faint young sun paradox. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2009, 106: 14784–14789
Goldblatt C, Lenton T M, Watson A J. Bistability of atmospheric oxygen and the great oxidation. Nature, 2006, 443: 683–686
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Rights and permissions
This article is published under an open access license. Please check the 'Copyright Information' section either on this page or in the PDF for details of this license and what re-use is permitted. If your intended use exceeds what is permitted by the license or if you are unable to locate the licence and re-use information, please contact the Rights and Permissions team.
About this article
Cite this article
Nisbet, E., Fowler, C.M.R. The evolution of the atmosphere in the Archaean and early Proterozoic. Chin. Sci. Bull. 56, 4–13 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-010-4199-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-010-4199-8