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Published November 2005 | public
Journal Article

Deposition of banded iron formations by anoxygenic phototrophic Fe(II)-oxidizing bacteria

Abstract

The mechanism of banded iron formation (BIF) deposition is controversial, but classically has been interpreted to reflect ferrous iron [Fe(II)] oxidation by molecular oxygen after cyanobacteria evolved on Earth. Anoxygenic photoautotrophic bacteria can also catalyze Fe(II) oxidation under anoxic conditions. Calculations based on experimentally determined Fe(II) oxidation rates by these organisms under light regimes representative of ocean water at depths of a few hundred meters suggest that, even in the presence of cyanobacteria, anoxygenic phototrophs living beneath a wind-mixed surface layer provide the most likely explanation for BIF deposition in a stratified ancient ocean and the absence of Fe in Precambrian surface waters.

Additional Information

© 2005 Geological Society of America. Manuscript received 25 February 2005; Revised manuscript received 21 June 2005; Manuscript accepted 28 June 2005. The Rhodobacter ferrooxidans strain SW2 was obtained from F. Widdel, MPI Bremen, Germany. Chlorobium ferrooxidans strain KoFox and Thiodictyon sp. strain F4 were provided by B. Schink, University of Konstanz, Germany. This work was supported by the German Research Foundation, DFG (Kappler), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Konhauser), and the Luce and Packard Foundations (Newman). We thank A. Tobias for help with carotenoid analysis, and P. Falkowski, J. Gibson, B. Kopp, B. Schink, K. Straub, and the members of the Newman lab for comments on the manuscript.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023