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Science 1 June 2001:
Vol. 292. no. 5522, pp. 1701 - 1704
DOI: 10.1126/science.1057204
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Reports

Photosynthesis-Induced Biofilm Calcification and Calcium Concentrations in Phanerozoic Oceans

Gernot Arp,* Andreas Reimer, Joachim Reitner

Photosynthetic carbon assimilation is commonly invoked as the cause of calcium carbonate precipitation in cyanobacterial biofilms that results in the formation of calcareous stromatolites. However, biofilm calcification patterns in recent lakes and simulation of photosynthetically induced rise in calcium carbonate supersaturation demonstrate that this mechanism applies only in settings low in dissolved inorganic carbon and high in calcium. Taking into account paleo-partial pressure curves for carbon dioxide, we show that Phanerozoic oceans sustaining calcified cyanobacteria must have had considerably higher calcium concentrations than oceans of today. In turn, the enigmatic lack of calcified cyanobacteria in stromatolite-bearing Precambrian sequences can now be explained as a result of high dissolved inorganic carbon concentrations.

Göttinger Zentrum für Geowissenschaften, Abteilung Geobiologie, Universität Göttingen, Goldschmidtstrasse 3, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: garp{at}gwdg.de

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)