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The Oxygen Revolution of Ancient Earth: How did the Great Oxygenation Event change the ecology?
About 2.5 billion years ago, the Earth experienced major changes, known as the "Great Oxygenation Event." The climate at that time was completely different from today's. Ice-cold temperatures were accompanied by a dramatic increase in oxygen. This change had a profound impact on the biological systems of the time.
During this period, there were at least three ice ages, showing the climate changes at that time. According to geologists' analysis, the Huronian Supergroup's sedimentation lasted from about 2.5 billion years ago to about 2.2 billion years ago. The foundation of these sediments was built in a plate crack and later evolved into a major ocean margin setting.
The occurrence of the "Great Oxygen Event" meant the rapid changes of ancient organisms. Many anaerobic organisms that previously occupied the earth were extinct, which paved the way for the rise of new life.
Huronian glacial deposits contained rocks called diamictite, and these layers were similar in thickness to current Quaternary sediments. These ice age terms mainly cover the three formations of Ramsay Lake, Bruce and Gowganda. Although there are relatively few glacial sediments from the same period globally, their presence in North America, Australia and South Africa shows the trend of global climate change.
According to geological evidence, the Huronian glacial deposits marked a major climatic event during which the patterns and connections between grass ecosystems produced dramatic changes in the evolution of many biospheres.
With the increase in oxygen, anaerobic microorganisms originally adapted to anoxic environments have encountered threats to their survival. According to multiple studies, the increase in oxygen not only changed the composition of the atmosphere, but also led to large-scale ecocide events. Behind this change is the oxygen photosynthesis evolved by cyanobacteria. The oxygen produced was initially absorbed by the surrounding environment, eventually leading to a large accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere.
Scholars believe that this process caused the earth's environment to shift from a reducing atmosphere to an oxidizing atmosphere, which greatly affected the ecosystem at that time and later.
However, the production of oxygen and the disappearance of Methane pushed the climate in a colder direction, forming the phenomenon of icehouse Earth. Under this circumstance, organisms that originally relied on chemical synthesis and anaerobic survival could no longer adapt to such changes, and eventually embarked on the road to extinction.
Such changes also provided opportunities for further development of later aerobic organisms. The anaerobic organisms that rely on these environments for survival began the process of symbiosis with aerobic organisms. This allowed some anaerobic archaea to slowly begin to embed their cell membranes to resist environmental oxygen, allowing eukaryotes to rise distinctly during this period.
With the establishment of an aerobic environment, life on earth has entered a new era.
History tells us that the increase in oxygen will reshuffle the earth's ecology, thus laying the foundation for new forms of life in the future. For the history of the earth, this is not only an ecological change, but also a turning point in the evolution of life. In fact, will this change have a lasting impact on current and future life forms?
