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Related Experiment Videos

The evolution of nitrogen cycling.

R L Mancinelli1, C P McKay

  • 1Solar System Exploration Branch, NASA-Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA.

Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere : the Journal of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life
|January 1, 1988
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Astrobiology·2012

New hypotheses suggest meteor impacts initially fixed Earth's nitrogen. Lightning fixation is higher than previously thought, indicating biological nitrogen fixation evolved later, after aerobic atmospheres formed.

Area of Science:

  • Geochemistry
  • Biogeochemistry
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • The evolution of Earth's nitrogen cycle is crucial for understanding the development of life.
  • Previous models of abiotic nitrogen fixation and its role in the early Earth are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To present new hypotheses on the evolution of nitrogen transformation reactions.
  • To support these hypotheses with new calculations and observations.
  • To propose an evolutionary sequence for biological nitrogen transformations.

Main Methods:

  • Calculations of shock production by meteor impacts.
  • Improved calculations of abiotic nitrogen fixation rates (lightning).
  • Analysis of photochemical reactions involving nitrogen oxides (NO) in the primitive atmosphere.
Keywords:
NASA Center ARCNASA Discipline ExobiologyNASA Discipline Number 52-50NASA Program Exobiology

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  • Consideration of microbe-environment interactions.

    • Main Results:

    • Meteor impacts may have converted Earth's entire N2 reservoir to fixed nitrogen.
    • Lightning fixation rate is 2-3 times greater than previously estimated.
    • Photochemical reactions produce HNO, which converts to nitrate/nitrite at the surface.
    • Denitrification likely preceded aerobic respiration; nitrification followed aerobic atmosphere advent.

    Conclusions:

    • Biological nitrogen fixation may have evolved later, possibly after aerobic atmospheres.
    • The proposed evolutionary sequence is Ammonification → Denitrification → Nitrification → Nitrogen fixation.