Dataset Information

Co-evolution of primitive methane-cycling ecosystems and early Earth's atmosphere and climate.

ABSTRACT: The history of the Earth has been marked by major ecological transitions, driven by metabolic innovation, that radically reshaped the composition of the oceans and atmosphere. The nature and magnitude of the earliest transitions, hundreds of million years before photosynthesis evolved, remain poorly understood. Using a novel ecosystem-planetary model, we find that pre-photosynthetic methane-cycling microbial ecosystems are much less productive than previously thought. In spite of their low productivity, the evolution of methanogenic metabolisms strongly modifies the atmospheric composition, leading to a warmer but less resilient climate. As the abiotic carbon cycle responds, further metabolic evolution (anaerobic methanotrophy) may feed back to the atmosphere and destabilize the climate, triggering a transient global glaciation. Although early metabolic evolution may cause strong climatic instability, a low CO:CH₄ atmospheric ratio emerges as a robust signature of simple methane-cycling ecosystems on a globally reduced planet such as the late Hadean/early Archean Earth.

SUBMITTER: Sauterey B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7264298 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Co-evolution of primitive methane-cycling ecosystems and early Earth's atmosphere and climate.

Sauterey Boris B Charnay Benjamin B Affholder Antonin A Mazevet Stéphane S Ferrière Régis R

Nature communications 20200601 1

The history of the Earth has been marked by major ecological transitions, driven by metabolic innovation, that radically reshaped the composition of the oceans and atmosphere. The nature and magnitude of the earliest transitions, hundreds of million years before photosynthesis evolved, remain poorly understood. Using a novel ecosystem-planetary model, we find that pre-photosynthetic methane-cycling microbial ecosystems are much less productive than previously thought. In spite of their low produ ...[more]

PMID: 32483130

Similar Datasets

Project description:BACKGROUND: Resource cycling is a defining process in the maintenance of the biosphere. Microbial communities, ranging from simple to highly diverse, play a crucial role in this process. Yet the evolutionary adaptation and speciation of micro-organisms have rarely been studied in the context of resource cycling. In this study, our basic questions are how does a community evolve its resource usage and how are resource cycles partitioned? RESULTS: We design a computational model in which a population of individuals evolves to take up nutrients and excrete waste. The waste of one individual is another's resource. Given a fixed amount of resources, this leads to resource cycles. We find that the shortest cycle dominates the ecological dynamics, and over evolutionary time its length is minimized. Initially a single lineage processes a long cycle of resources, later crossfeeding lineages arise. The evolutionary dynamics that follow are determined by the strength of indirect selection for resource cycling. We study indirect selection by changing the spatial setting and the strength of direct selection. If individuals are fixed at lattice sites or direct selection is low, indirect selection result in lineages that structure their local environment, leading to 'smart' individuals and stable patterns of resource dynamics. The individuals are good at cycling resources themselves and do this with a short cycle. On the other hand, if individuals randomly change position each time step, or direct selection is high, individuals are more prone to crossfeeding: an ecosystem based solution with turbulent resource dynamics, and individuals that are less capable of cycling resources themselves. CONCLUSION: In a baseline model of ecosystem evolution we demonstrate different eco-evolutionary trajectories of resource cycling. By varying the strength of indirect selection through the spatial setting and direct selection, the integration of information by the evolutionary process leads to qualitatively different results from individual smartness to cooperative community structures.

Dataset Information

Co-evolution of primitive methane-cycling ecosystems and early Earth's atmosphere and climate.

Publications

Co-evolution of primitive methane-cycling ecosystems and early Earth's atmosphere and climate.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets