AFRICAN LAKE RESEMBLES OCEANS OF PROTEROZOIC EON

A new research conducted by the University of British Columbia has discovered an African lake which has chemistry similar to the Proterozoic eon.

During this period between one and two billion years ago, the nitrogen concentration in ocean was high. This was when the first emergence of multi-cellularity and eukaryotic life occurred. The high level of nitrogen allowed marine organisms to proliferate.

Lake Kivu situated in the Democratic Republic of Congo has no oxygen in its deep waters. It is also one of the few places on the Earth which contains high concentrations of dissolved nitrogen. They also, for the first time, found nitrogen recycling microbes here.

"While these reactions have been observed in the lab, their activity in Lake Kivu gives us confidence that they can play an important role in natural ecosystems and allows us to build math models that can describe these reactions in oceans of the past" said Céline Michiels, the study lead.

Using these models and hints from rocks, the team is learning more info on the evolving of life in the ancient oceans. Thus this lake is helping them discover the history of life on the earth. 

Content Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170131124155.htm

Image:https://www.britannica.com/science/Precambrian-time