NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  1. Content with the tag: “iron

  2. Iron and sulfur-based biospheres and their biosignatures

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 4.1, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2

    Iron, the Oxygen Transition, UV Shielding, and Photosynthesis

    ROADMAP OBJECTIVES: 2.1
  3. A Natural Iron Fertilization Mechanism from the Deep Sea


    The amount of iron released to the ocean by hydrothermal venting at the seafloor is approximately equal to all of the iron flushed from the continents by rivers. The importance of iron to aquatic life can be compared to the importance of nitrogen to terrestrial life, yet iron remains a limiting nutrient in most parts of the oceans. A new study of iron within hydrothermal vents shows that iron emitted from the vents can bind to organic particles and be distributed within the oceans. This bound iron doesn’t oxidize, and is much more easily processed...

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  4. Iron Isotope Record Reflects Microbial Metabolism Through Time


    NAI’s University of Wisconsin team presents a review of iron isotope fingerprints created through biogeochemical cycling in the May, 2008 issue of Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. This landmark paper brings together for the first time the co-evolution records of photosynthesis, bacterial sulfate reduction, and bacterial iron reduction in the early Earth. They review data on natural systems and experiments, looking at both abiological and biological processes, and conclude that the temporal carbon, sulfur, and iron isotope record reflects the interplay of changing microbial metabolisms over Earth’s history.

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