Berner RA, Petsch ST, Lake JA, Beerling DJ, Popp BN, Lane RS, Laws EA, Westley MB, Cassar N, Woodward FI, Quick WP
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8109, USA. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK. Department of Oceanography, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technolo.
Science. 2000 Mar 3;287(5458):1630-3. doi: 10.1126/science.287.5458.1630.
Models describing the evolution of the partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen over Phanerozoic time are constrained by the mass balances required between the inputs and outputs of carbon and sulfur to the oceans. This constraint has limited the applicability of proposed negative feedback mechanisms for maintaining levels of atmospheric O(2) at biologically permissable levels. Here we describe a modeling approach that incorporates O(2)-dependent carbon and sulfur isotope fractionation using data obtained from laboratory experiments on carbon-13 discrimination by vascular land plants and marine plankton. The model allows us to calculate a Phanerozoic O(2) history that agrees with independent models and with biological and physical constraints and supports the hypothesis of a high atmospheric O(2) content during the Carboniferous (300 million years ago), a time when insect gigantism was widespread.
描述显生宙时期大气氧分压演变的模型受到海洋中碳和硫的输入与输出之间所需质量平衡的限制。这种限制使得为将大气O₂水平维持在生物可允许水平而提出的负反馈机制的适用性受到了限制。在此，我们描述了一种建模方法，该方法利用从关于维管陆地植物和海洋浮游生物对碳-13的辨别能力的实验室实验中获得的数据，纳入了依赖O₂的碳和硫同位素分馏。该模型使我们能够计算出一个与独立模型以及生物和物理限制相符的显生宙O₂历史，并支持石炭纪（3亿年前）大气O₂含量较高的假说，当时昆虫巨型化现象广泛存在。
