Studies on Global Redox Carbon Cycle and Periodicity of Some Phenomena in Biosphere (6381)

Abstract

The irregular periodicity of some biosphere phenomena, such as climatic cycles, mass extinctions, abrupt changes of biodiversity rate and others in the course of geological time is analyzed by means of a global redox carbon cycle model.  It is shown that these different by nature phenomena have a common cause for the periodicity. The cause is the periodic impact of moving lithospheric plates on photosynthesis via CO2 injections. The source of  CO2 is the oxidation of sedimentary organic matter in thermochemical sulfate reduction from subduction zone, where plates collide. The periodicity and the irregularity of lithospheric plates’ movement generate orogenic cycles, at the background of which biosphere events appear.  The biosphere events are usually followed by a set of traits that are used to identify the events in the geological past. Orogenic cycles manifested till the moment when the carbon cycle didn’t reach the ecological compensation point, i.e. when the amount of photosynthetically produced carbon will become equal to the amount of the reduced carbon oxidized in the numerous oxidation processes in the Earth’s crust. After reaching this point long-term orogenic cycles were replaced by short-term climatic oscillations. The same set of traits characterizing the orogenic cycles and the climatic oscillations evidences for their same nature.  The changes concern only duration of the event and the scale of its influence.