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Phototrophic Fe(II) oxidation in an atmosphere of H |
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| Authors: | L. R. CROAL Y. JIAO A. KAPPLER D. K. NEWMAN |
| Affiliation: | Department of Biology,;Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and;Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Physical and Life Science Directorate, Biology and Bioscience Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA; Center for Applied Geoscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany |
| Abstract: | The effect of hydrogen on the rate of phototrophic Fe(II) oxidation by two species of purple bacteria was measured at two different bicarbonate concentrations. Hydrogen slowed Fe(II) oxidation to varying degrees depending on the bicarbonate concentration, but even the slowest rate of Fe(II) oxidation remained on the same order of magnitude as that estimated to have been necessary to deposit the Hamersley banded iron formations. Given the hydrogen and bicarbonate concentrations inferred for the Archean, our data suggest that Fe(II) phototrophy could have been a viable process at this time. |
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