Availability of O(2) and H(2)O(2) on pre-photosynthetic Earth

Old arguments that free O(2) must have been available at Earth's surface prior to the origin of photosynthesis have been revived by a new study that shows that aerobic respiration can occur at dissolved oxygen concentrations much lower than had previously been thought, perhaps as low as 0.05 nM, which corresponds to a partial pressure for O(2) of about 4 × 10(-8) bar. We used numerical models to study whether such O(2) concentrations might have been provided by atmospheric photochemistry. Results show that disproportionation of H(2)O(2) near the surface might have yielded enough O(2) to satisfy this constraint. Alternatively, poleward transport of O(2) from the equatorial stratosphere into the polar night region, followed by downward transport in the polar vortex, may have brought O(2) directly to the surface. Thus, our calculations indicate that this "early respiration" hypothesis might be physically reasonable.