Since their origins billions of years ago, life on Earth and the planet’s surface have undergone profound transformations. Microorganisms inhabiting a primitive planet enveloped by a dioxygen-free atmosphere have evolved into the modern biodiversity under the physico-chemical conditions we know today.
In Interactions between the Geosphere and the Biosphere, we characterize the nature and diversity of the close interactions between the biosphere and the geosphere that contributed to the formation and degradation of rocks, on the one hand, and sustained the functioning of ecological systems on the other. The book then explores how these interactions have led to a genuine coevolution between the biosphere and the geosphere over geological time. The most striking manifestations of this are the evolution of the global biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen, that of climates and the episodes of diversification and extinction of living organisms.
Introduction xi Christophe THOMAZO and Karim BENZERARA Chapter 1. Weathering of Rocks by Living Organisms 1 Bastien WILD and Damien DAVAL 1.1. Rock weathering in the critical zone 1 1.2. Parameterization of mineral dissolution rates 2 1.3. Modeling rock chemical weathering in the critical zone 10 1.4. Mechanisms associated with microbial dissolution 17 1.5. Biotic weathering by microorganisms 19 1.6. What quantitative impact do living organisms have on mineral dissolution? 24 1.7. Conclusion 29 1.8. References 30 Chapter 2. Biomineralization: The Formation of Minerals by Living Organisms 47 Karim BENZERARA 2.1. Introduction 47 2.2. Diversity of biominerals and biomineralizing organisms 50 2.3. Biomineral formation mechanisms 58 2.4. Impact of biomineralization on how the Earth functions 74 2.5. Impact of biomineralization on the functioning of living organisms 76 2.6. Evolutionary history of biomineralization processes 77 2.7. Applications of biomineralogy 79 2.8. Conclusion 81 2.9. References 81 Chapter 3. Microbialites in the Fossil and Current Record 87 Emmanuelle VENNIN, Anthony BOUTON, Pierre BOUSSAGOL and Pieter T. VISSCHER 3.1. Introduction 87 3.2. Microbialites: a continuous archive of Earth's history 88 3.3. How microbialites are formed 98 3.4. Preservation of microbialites in the fossil record 108 3.5. Examples illustrating the diversity of microbialites in current and fossil environments 111 3.6. Conclusions 115 3.7. References 116 Chapter 4. Molecular Approaches for the Study of Phylogenetic and Functional Diversity of Living Organisms 129 Miguel INIESTO, Ana GUTIÉRREZ-PRECIADO, Thomas BACCHETTA, David MOREIRA and Purificación LÓPEZ-GARCÍA 4.1. Classifying and understanding living organisms 129 4.2. Microbial diversity associated with microbialites 137 4.3. Functions of microbial communities associated with microbialites 143 4.4. Reconstruction of evolutionary history and inference of ancient traits 146 4.5. Conclusions and perspectives 150 4.6. References 151 Chapter 5. Oxygen: A Major Geobiological Player 161 Christophe THOMAZO 5.1. Introduction 161 5.2. Oxygen: origin and properties 162 5.3. The geobiological history of oxygen on Earth 170 5.4. Conclusion 188 5.5. References 188 Chapter 6. The Importance of Living Organisms in the Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles 197 Alice PELLERIN and Magali ADER 6.1. Biogeochemical cycles 197 6.2. The carbon biogeochemical cycle 198 6.3. The biogeochemical cycle of nitrogen 208 6.4. General conclusions -- from a geochemical cycle to a biogeochemical cycle: how to detect the appearance of the first biological fluxes of nitrogen and carbon? 215 6.5. References 216 Chapter 7. Modeling the Biosphere and Its Interactions with the Geosphere 219 Guillaume LE HIR 7.1. Introduction 219 7.2. Response of the biosphere to current global changes 223 7.3. Geosphere-biosphere interaction during the colonization of continents by plants 234 7.4. How to model biosphere during mass extinctions? 243 7.5. Conclusion 250 7.6. References 251 Chapter 8. Fluctuations in Biodiversity Over Geological Time: An Illustration of the Earth/Life Connection 257 Arnaud BRAYARD 8.1. Introduction 257 8.2. History of Life - how to measure it in time and space? 259 8.3. Extinctions and mass extinctions 265 8.4. (Re)diversifications: some examples of interactions between the biosphere and the geosphere 269 8.5. Conclusion 276 8.6. References 277 Conclusions 285 Christophe THOMAZO and Karim BENZERARA List of Authors 291 Index 293
Karim Benzerara is Agrégé in Life and Earth Sciences and Director of Research at the CNRS, France. His research focuses on mineral/living interactions by combining microbiology and mineralogy. Christophe Thomazo is Agrégé in Life and Earth Sciences and Professor at the University of Burgundy, France. His research focuses on past and present biogeochemical cycles using stable isotopes.
