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Climate Over the Ages; Is the Environment Stable?

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Oxygen and the Evolution of Life

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Abstract

As described in Chaps. 3 and 4, the advent of oxygenic photosynthesis triggered worldwide environmental changes. A world that had been reductive passed over into a state in which free dioxygen was available in the oceans and the atmosphere. We have already described the likely catastrophic effects on an anaerobic biota, but the changes were much broader than that. Dioxygen in the seas led to major changes in seawater chemistry. Iron, which had previously been soluble as ferrous salts, was precipitated in the ferric form. Copper, which had been insoluble in the anaerobic ocean as cuprous sulphide (Cu+-state), now became moderately soluble in the cupric form (Cu++-state).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Molekulare Biophysik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Jakob Welder Weg. 26, 55128, Mainz, Germany

    Professor Dr. Heinz Decker

  2. Dept of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Kensal E. van Holde (Distinguished Professor Emeritus)

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  1. Professor Dr. Heinz Decker
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  2. Kensal E. van Holde
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Correspondence to Heinz Decker .

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Decker, H., van Holde, K.E. (2011). Climate Over the Ages; Is the Environment Stable?. In: Oxygen and the Evolution of Life. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13179-0_6

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