In the search for life beyond Earth, scientists 'follow the water'
to find places that might be hospitable. However, every home
gardener knows that plants need more than water, or even sunshine.
They also need fertilizer – a mixture of chemical elements that are
the building blocks of the molecules of life.
Scientists at Arizona State University are studying how the
distribution of these elements on Earth – or beyond – shapes the
distribution of life, the state of the environment and the course of
evolution.
Ariel Anbar, a professor in ASU's Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry and the School of Earth and Space Exploration in the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences weaves together threads from
geoscience, chemistry, biochemistry and biology in his article
published in the Dec. 5 issue of Science. The "Perspectives" article
reviews what we know about changes in the availability of some key
nutrients in the oceans over the sweep of geologic time and suggests
future directions for research.
"The history of our planet is like a natural laboratory
of 'alternative worlds,'" says Anbar. "The chemical composition of
the oceans has changed dramatically over billions of years. Elements
that are abundant today were once scarce, and elements that are
scarce today were once abundant. So Earth's ancient oceans are a
good place to go if we want to understand how organisms and
ecosystems evolve to cope with changing abundances of elements.
Studying the ancient oceans also stretches our minds to imagine what
we might find someday in alien oceans on other worlds."
Visiting billion-year-old oceans is not so easy, however. Anbar
explains that biogeochemists cannot directly sample oceans of the
past but make inferences about their compositions by examining
sedimentary rocks that were deposited on ancient sea floors. For
example, the ocean floor rocks from the first half of Earth history
include massive deposits of iron oxide – essentially, rust. Those
rusty rocks tell us that the oceans in those days were rich in
dissolved iron. Today, iron is so scarce in seawater that organisms
living in vast areas of the oceans are literally starved for this
biologically essential element. These organisms have evolved clever
strategies to find and capture this key nutrient.
But Anbar stresses that iron is only one of many critical nutrient
elements to consider. Sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, copper, zinc,
nickel and even obscure elements like molybdenum are all essential
nutrients whose abundances have gone up and down in the oceans over
geological time. These changes are a consequence of increases in the
amount of oxygen in the atmosphere and oceans.
Different elements are important in different ways for biological
processes that affect the environment. As a result, Anbar says that
changes in ocean chemistry probably had many unusual consequences in
Earth history. For instance, he points to a suggestion made by a
colleague, Professor Roger Buick of the University of Washington,
that changes in the availability of copper could have affected the
amount of the gas nitrous oxide – so-called 'laughing gas' – in the
atmosphere. The idea follows from the fact that copper is present in
the reaction center of the enzyme that bacteria use to convert
nitrous oxide to ordinary nitrogen gas. Buick proposes that copper-
poor oceans could have led to a 'laughing gas' atmosphere between
1.8 and 0.7 billion years ago. "Ironically, it's no laughing
matter," says Anbar. "Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas. It
may be that copper scarcity helped keep the Earth warm at that time."
Anbar is most excited by the possibility that changes in ocean
chemistry affected the makeup of life itself. "Take iron, for
example," he contemplates. "It's needed by virtually every organism
on the planet. Is that because the basic biochemistry of life on
Earth developed in the iron-rich oceans of Earth's distant past? Or
is it because the chemical properties of iron are so special that
evolution would have selected for it even if it was always rare?"
The answers to such questions will come from continued study of the
past combined with research into how the use of elements by
organisms is affected by changes in element abundances in their
environment. Much of this biological work will take place at ASU in
a project Anbar is undertaking with Profs. James Elser and Susanne
Neuer in the School of Life Sciences, Everett Shock in the School of
Earth and Space Exploration and the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry, and other ASU scientists. That effort is supported by
a new, $7 M grant from the NASA Astrobiology Institute. "NASA is
really interested in the idea that they should 'follow the elements'
in addition to water when searching for life out there," says
Anbar. "They recognize that ASU is an exceptional place for such
research."
Source: Arizona State University
to find places that might be hospitable. However, every home
gardener knows that plants need more than water, or even sunshine.
They also need fertilizer – a mixture of chemical elements that are
the building blocks of the molecules of life.
Scientists at Arizona State University are studying how the
distribution of these elements on Earth – or beyond – shapes the
distribution of life, the state of the environment and the course of
evolution.
Ariel Anbar, a professor in ASU's Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry and the School of Earth and Space Exploration in the
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences weaves together threads from
geoscience, chemistry, biochemistry and biology in his article
published in the Dec. 5 issue of Science. The "Perspectives" article
reviews what we know about changes in the availability of some key
nutrients in the oceans over the sweep of geologic time and suggests
future directions for research.
"The history of our planet is like a natural laboratory
of 'alternative worlds,'" says Anbar. "The chemical composition of
the oceans has changed dramatically over billions of years. Elements
that are abundant today were once scarce, and elements that are
scarce today were once abundant. So Earth's ancient oceans are a
good place to go if we want to understand how organisms and
ecosystems evolve to cope with changing abundances of elements.
Studying the ancient oceans also stretches our minds to imagine what
we might find someday in alien oceans on other worlds."
Visiting billion-year-
explains that biogeochemists cannot directly sample oceans of the
past but make inferences about their compositions by examining
sedimentary rocks that were deposited on ancient sea floors. For
example, the ocean floor rocks from the first half of Earth history
include massive deposits of iron oxide – essentially, rust. Those
rusty rocks tell us that the oceans in those days were rich in
dissolved iron. Today, iron is so scarce in seawater that organisms
living in vast areas of the oceans are literally starved for this
biologically essential element. These organisms have evolved clever
strategies to find and capture this key nutrient.
But Anbar stresses that iron is only one of many critical nutrient
elements to consider. Sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, copper, zinc,
nickel and even obscure elements like molybdenum are all essential
nutrients whose abundances have gone up and down in the oceans over
geological time. These changes are a consequence of increases in the
amount of oxygen in the atmosphere and oceans.
Different elements are important in different ways for biological
processes that affect the environment. As a result, Anbar says that
changes in ocean chemistry probably had many unusual consequences in
Earth history. For instance, he points to a suggestion made by a
colleague, Professor Roger Buick of the University of Washington,
that changes in the availability of copper could have affected the
amount of the gas nitrous oxide – so-called 'laughing gas' – in the
atmosphere. The idea follows from the fact that copper is present in
the reaction center of the enzyme that bacteria use to convert
nitrous oxide to ordinary nitrogen gas. Buick proposes that copper-
poor oceans could have led to a 'laughing gas' atmosphere between
1.8 and 0.7 billion years ago. "Ironically, it's no laughing
matter," says Anbar. "Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas. It
may be that copper scarcity helped keep the Earth warm at that time."
Anbar is most excited by the possibility that changes in ocean
chemistry affected the makeup of life itself. "Take iron, for
example," he contemplates. "It's needed by virtually every organism
on the planet. Is that because the basic biochemistry of life on
Earth developed in the iron-rich oceans of Earth's distant past? Or
is it because the chemical properties of iron are so special that
evolution would have selected for it even if it was always rare?"
The answers to such questions will come from continued study of the
past combined with research into how the use of elements by
organisms is affected by changes in element abundances in their
environment. Much of this biological work will take place at ASU in
a project Anbar is undertaking with Profs. James Elser and Susanne
Neuer in the School of Life Sciences, Everett Shock in the School of
Earth and Space Exploration and the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry, and other ASU scientists. That effort is supported by
a new, $7 M grant from the NASA Astrobiology Institute. "NASA is
really interested in the idea that they should 'follow the elements'
in addition to water when searching for life out there," says
Anbar. "They recognize that ASU is an exceptional place for such
research."
Source: Arizona State University
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