DESCENT WITH MODIFICATION 2 Bacteria in their most primitive form were able to endure nearly boiling acidic waters in a reducing atmosphere. Over several millennia local changes in acidity and temperature caused new environments to develop in many locations and clouds of water evaporated and formed acid clouds which produced acid precipitation and powerful storms all across the earth’s surface. In young mountain ranges cooling had become more pronounced and the rocks had become more solidified. Many of these rocks were to the alkaline side of neutrality in their pH and thus were fairly vulnerable to weathering from the acid storms. Shallow and deep basins and gullies formed providing structural features to accommodate rivers, streams, lakes, natural ponds, brooks and creeks later on. The alkaline rocks began to slowly neutralize the acidity of the water as it dissolved and weathered them and as more cooling occurred over the following millennia the intensity of the constant storms and their continuous discharges of lightening began to abate somewhat to the point that the seas were only slightly hot and a large percentage of the acidity was neutralized so that the pH of the oceans at that time was around 6.5 more or less. In some of the micro habitats, that allowed pHs to actually drift to the alkaline side of neutral. In these varied habitats given the relatively prodigious numbers of bacterial cells that teemed throughout the waters and the relative ease with which mutagenic electromagnetic rays could penetrate the still reductive atmosphere, it was not surprising that many mutations occurred and that some of these favored survival in the varying environments which had developed so that diversity amongst the bacterial population grew to a degree that would in our more stable environment seem unimaginable. In a few of these environments some light absorbing proteins developed within some of the bacteria. The first of these were what we call bacteria chlorophyll followed by Chlorophyll a and Chlorophyll b. The bacteria chlorophylls were functional in the anaerobic conditions present at the time and produced some excess carbon dioxide pockets along the shoreline. In these carbon dioxide containing pockets of atmosphere, the other chlorophylls (a and b) were able to function in these pockets and were incorporated into some bacterial cells which had also incorporated some extra membranes which had an affinity for the green protein and began to combine water and carbon dioxide in a manner which produced organic compounds through this process of photosynthesis and gave off carbon dioxide which was no stranger to the atmospheric mix but the other by product, (it was very unusual and uncommon at the time) was a totally different molecule, free oxygen, and once it began to be released, the ripple effect was incredibly powerful. At first the reducing characteristics of the atmosphere took the oxygen as quickly as it was produced, but the Blue Green Bacteria found some excellent microhabitats which expanded as they increased in number and as they increased in number they produced increasingly large amounts of free oxygen. Eventually there was enough free oxygen available in the majority of locations for the atmosphere to no longer be a reducing one and with free oxygen available it became a whole new ballgame.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 20:06:21 +0000
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