Daniel Conley’s seminar (Lund University, Sweden) on April 29

On April 29th at 10am in room A215 (IUEM) we will welcome Daniel Conley from Lund University in Sweden who will present his work on the following theme:

Constraining variations in the global biogeochemical silica cycle through geologic time.

Summary of his presentation:

It is widely recognized that the emergence and expansion of silica biomineralization in the oceans has affected evolutionary competition for dissolved Si (DSi). This resulted in changes in the global biogeochemical cycles of silica, carbon (C) and other nutrients that regulate ocean productivity and ultimately climate. However, a series of very recent discoveries in geology and biology suggest that the first biological impacts on the global Si cycle were likely by prokaryotes during the Archean with further decreases in oceanic DSi with the evolution of widespread, large-scale skeletal biosilicification significantly earlier than the current paradigm. Our project interweaves geology and biology and will create new knowledge into the interactions between biosilicification in organisms and the environment and how these interactions have evolved through Earth’s history. Together, these geological and biological analyses will provide novel insights into the key events during periods of DSi drawdown, which reorganize the distribution of carbon and nutrients, changing energy flow and productivity in the biological communities of the ancient oceans.