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Carbon Cycle and Carbon Isotope Record: Geochemical Impact of Life over 3.8 Ga of Earth History

  • Chapter
Early Organic Evolution

Abstract

With sedimentary organic carbon (in the form of kerogen and its graphitic derivatives) dating back to 3.8 Ga ago, and the isotopic signature of autotrophic carbon fixation persisting over the same time span if allowance is made for a metamorphic overprint of the oldest (> 3.5 Ga) record, we may state with fair confidence that biological modulation of the terrestrial carbon cycle had commenced very early in geological history. Ever since then, carbon transformations in the Earth’s exogenic system have proceeded in the form of a biogeochemical cycle comprising an organic (reduced) and an inorganic (oxidized) carbon branch. Since the partitioning of the element between the reduced (kerogen) and oxidized (carbonate) moiety is coupled with the isotopic compositions of both carbon species by an isotope mass balance, fluctuations in the 13C/12C record, notably of marine carbonates, reflect changing ratios Corg/Ccarb in the total carbon flux from the surficial exchange reservoir to the sedimentary shell that has subsequently come to store the far bulk (≈6× 1022 g) of carbon residing in and above the crust. Relying on the sensor function of δ 13Ccarb, it is possible to identify numerous imbalances in the past operation of the carbon cycle which, however, appear to be demonstrably tethered to a time-invariant average state. On time scales approaching the length of currently documented Earth history, these oscillations are largely smoothed out, with the sedimentary carbon isotope record as a whole constituting a long-term index line of autotrophic carbon fixation that primarily reflects the isotopediscriminating properties of ribulose-l,5-bisphos-phate (RuBP) carboxylase, the principal CO2-fixing enzyme of the Calvin cycle.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie (Otto-Hahn-Institut), W-6500, Mainz, Germany

    Manfred Schidlowski

  2. Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803-4104, USA

    Paul Aharon

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  1. Manfred Schidlowski
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  2. Paul Aharon
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. IGCP Project 157, Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie (Otto-Hahn-Institut), Saarstr. 23, W-6500, Mainz, Germany

    Manfred Schidlowski (Chairman) (Chairman)

  2. Biological Science Center, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Stjepko Golubic

  3. Dept. of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695-8208, USA

    Michael M. Kimberley

  4. Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, S.A., 5001, Australia

    David M. McKirdy Sr. (Lecturer) (Lecturer)

  5. Division of Continental Geology, Bureau of Mineral Resources, GPO Box 378, Canberra, A.C.T., 2601, Australia

    Philip A. Trudinger

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Schidlowski, M., Aharon, P. (1992). Carbon Cycle and Carbon Isotope Record: Geochemical Impact of Life over 3.8 Ga of Earth History. In: Schidlowski, M., Golubic, S., Kimberley, M.M., McKirdy, D.M., Trudinger, P.A. (eds) Early Organic Evolution. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76884-2_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76884-2_11

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-76886-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-76884-2

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