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Pre-industrial carbon dioxide level was 280 ppm, now 380 ppm.
Early Earth Atmosphere:
No Oxygen
Lots of Carbon Dioxide,
Methane, Water Vapor, Hydrogen
Cyanobacteria and Oxygenic Photosynthesis
About 3 Billion Years Ago. Water is the electron
donor. CO2 + H2O CH2O + O2
Oxygenic photosynthesis is
complicated. It requires two
photosystems and is thought to
have arisen only once in the
course of evolution.
Modern Stromatolites Fossil Stromatolite (2.5
Billion Years Old)
Banded Iron Formation
Oxygen Was A Poison to Early
Life Forms on Earth. Took about 1
billion years before oceans and
atmosphere were fully oxygenated
Oxygen in the air allowed the evolution of eucaryotes and aerobic
respiration, finally leading to the worlds life forms present today.
Oxygen also produced the ozone shield which protects water in the upper
atmosphere from boiling away as hydrogen
Ozone in the upper atmosphere (derived from O2) protects against the splitting
H2O to H and OH, with H escaping to space.
Earth has lost about 25% of its water while water is nearly all gone on Venus and
Mars.
Greenhouse
Gasses:
Water Vapor
Carbon Dioxide*
Methane*
Nitrous Oxide*
*Increasing Due
To Human
Activity
1500 Ma
60 Ma
Diatoms Grasses
Evolution and impacts of algae on the atmosphere continue today
In this course we emphasize the ecology and biology of the
algae rather than the taxonomy. Main groups we will cover:
Ulva Monostroma
Diatoms
Desmokont Dinokont
Prorocentrum Lingulodinium
Red Tides
Coccolithophores
Emiliania huxleyi Haptophytes
w/ two smooth
Ca + 2HCO3 ---> CaCO3 + H2O + CO2
flagella and
a coiled hapto-
nema