Dataset Information

A biomarker based on the stable isotopes of nickel.

ABSTRACT: The new stable isotope systems of transition metals are increasingly used to understand and quantify the impact of primitive microbial metabolisms on the modern and ancient Earth. To date, little effort has been expended on nickel (Ni) isotopes but there are good reasons to believe that this system may be more straightforward, and useful in this respect, than some others. Here, we present Ni stable isotope data for abiotic terrestrial samples and pure cultures of methanogens. The dataset for rocks reveals little isotopic variability and provides a lithologic baseline for terrestrial Ni isotope studies. In contrast, methanogens assimilate the light isotopes, yielding residual media with a complementary heavy isotopic enrichment. Methanogenesis may have evolved during or before the Archean, when methane could have been key to Earth's early systems. Our data suggest significant potential in Ni stable isotopes for identifying and quantifying methanogenesis on the early planet. Additionally, Ni stable isotope fractionation may well prove to be the fundamental unambiguous trace metal biomarker for methanogens.

SUBMITTER: Cameron V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2708719 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

A biomarker based on the stable isotopes of nickel.

Cameron Vyllinniskii V Vance Derek D Archer Corey C House Christopher H CH

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20090624 27

The new stable isotope systems of transition metals are increasingly used to understand and quantify the impact of primitive microbial metabolisms on the modern and ancient Earth. To date, little effort has been expended on nickel (Ni) isotopes but there are good reasons to believe that this system may be more straightforward, and useful in this respect, than some others. Here, we present Ni stable isotope data for abiotic terrestrial samples and pure cultures of methanogens. The dataset for roc ...[more]

PMID: 19553218

Similar Datasets

Project description:Stable potassium isotopes are one of the emerging non-traditional isotope systems enabled in recent years by the advance of Multi-Collector Inductively-Coupled-Plasma Mass-Spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). In this review, we first summarize the geochemical and cosmochemical properties of K, its major reservoirs, and the analytical methods of K isotopes. Following this, we review recent literature on K isotope applications in the fields of geochemistry and cosmochemistry. Geochemically, K is a highly incompatible lithophile element, and a highly soluble, biophile element. The isotopic fractionation of K is relatively small during magmatic processes such as partial melting and fractional crystallization, whereas during low-temperature and biological processes fractionation is considerably larger. This resolvable fractionation has made K isotopes promising tracers for a variety of Earth and environmental processes, including chemical weathering, low-temperature alteration of igneous rocks, reverse weathering, and the recycling of sediments into the mantle during subduction. Sorption and interactions of aqueous K with different clay minerals during cation exchange and clay formation are likely to be of fundamental significance in generating much of the K isotope variability seen in samples from the Earth surface and samples carrying recycled surface materials from the deep Earth. The magnitude of this fractionation is process- and mineral-dependent. Comprehensive quantification of pertinent K isotope fractionation factors is currently lacking and urgently needed. Significant fractionation during biological activities, such as plant uptake, demonstrates the potential utility of K isotopes in the study of the nutrient cycle and its relation to the climate and various ecosystems, enabling new and largely unexplored avenues for future research. Of significant importance to the cosmochemistry community, K is a moderately volatile element with large variations in K/U ratio observed among chondrites and planetary materials. As this indicates different degrees of volatile depletion, it has become a fundamental chemical signature of both chondritic and planetary bodies. This volatile depletion has been attributed to various processes such as solar nebula condensation, mixing of volatile-rich and -poor reservoirs, planetary accretional volatilization via impacts, and/or magma ocean degassing. While K isotopes have the potential to distinguish these different processes, the current results are still highly debated. A good correlation between the K isotope compositions of four differentiated bodies (Earth, Mars, Moon, and Vesta) and their masses suggests a ubiquitous volatile depletion mechanism during the formation of the terrestrial planets. It is still unknown whether any of the K isotopic variation among chondrites and differentiated bodies can be attributed to inherited signatures of mass-independent isotopic anomalies.

Dataset Information

A biomarker based on the stable isotopes of nickel.

Publications

A biomarker based on the stable isotopes of nickel.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets