Life is impacted despite being self-contained organisms with
membranes; impacted despite having mechanisms to maintain their
internal pH; impacted despite there being a fully oxygenated
atmosphere. Would it not then stand to reason, that a larger amount
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere on the prebiotic Earth would have
had a much greater effect on the origin of life? Especially when
there was little free oxygen, if at all, then?
Current estimates- based on
geological evidence from the Hadean era- suggest that the amount of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could have been higher than 10%.
The impact of such a large amount of carbon dioxide on the oceans
back then is very hard to imagine, especially, when such a small
amount has had such a large devastating impact on modern oceans and
its life today.
The first thing that we need to
consider is the amount of atmospheric pressure that was present back
then. Current estimates have it that the atmospheric pressure was
between 20 and 480 times greater than it is today. The atmospheric
pressure that existed then is important to consider because of its
very particular effect on the pH of the oceans. The increased
atmospheric pressure of course decreased the pH of the oceans, but
that is not the whole story.
The pH of the oceans would have been
lesser, more acidic, in the water that was closer to its surface.
This is the case due to the partial pressure rules of carbon dioxide
gas present over water which dictates this behavior. This behavior
can also be confirmed as evidenced by the acidification of today's
oceans. The pH of the ocean is more acidic near the surface and less
so the deeper you measure.
The bleaching of the coral reefs happens
at very low depths, very near the surface, of the oceans. That is
where the partial pressure of the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere
would have the greatest effect. But what I consider to be even more
important is the drop in acidity the further down you go into the
depths of the ocean. The deeper you go into the ocean the less effect
the atmospheric carbon dioxide has on the ocean's pH.
I can already hear everyone's
objections repeating the same age old litany: "The average pH of
the oceans at this time is believed to still have been basic."
Currently, there are more that, correctly, state that the oceans were
acidic but that its average pH was 6.3. But I am going to say that
the average pH of the ocean is as elucidating as knowing the average
atmospheric temperature today.
In other words can knowing the average
atmospheric temperature today tell you anything about the present
temperature on the North Pole or in Hawaii? No. Neither does knowing
the average atmospheric pressure tell you if there was a hurricane in
Florida or a monsoon in Asia. The average of any measurable quantity
does not tell you anything about local conditions at any given time;
thus, the need for a closer look at the effects of carbon dioxide on
the pH of the oceans is still warranted.
Well then, with the Hadean eon carbon
dioxide content at or above 10%- the pH of the ocean near the surface
would have been very low. Easily below 3.4 pH the calculated pH of a
solution with carbon dioxide gas above it at 10 atms. Again, what is
most important for us to consider is the gradient of pH that emerges
thanks to the high carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. The
deeper, thus farther from the partial pressure, the higher the pH
gets.
Eventually the pH of the ocean at a deeper depth will be 5 pH.
This is the pH of cell organelles called lysosomes where, at this 5
pH, certain proteins become active and breakdown the chemical bonds
of the nutrients that that cell ingests. Go deeper and you will come
across 7.2 pH, the pH that most cells need their cytoplasm to be at
in order for them to function properly or replicate.
For a couple of years I thought that
this was all I could say about the matter of pH gradients forming in
the prebiotic oceans. But as it turned out- to my utter surprise- I
came across another published article with modern corroborating
evidence on this very subject.
As it turns out Jaroslav Flegr reports
that eukaryotic cells set up a pH gradient within their cytoplasms
which make proteins function better and make those cells able to
become 3 to 4 times larger than prokaryotic cells (Flegr 2009). This
article not only provides us with proof that a pH gradient is
beneficial to life which is more modern, corroborating, and published
evidence in support of my theory. It also shows how my theory once
again solves yet another unforeseen problem.
My theory will also show
how Emergent Chemical Evolution took advantage of the pH gradients
that emerged in the oceans, and it will also give a means by which
life would have evolved to mimic this very characteristic.
As you can begin to see, the ocean was
not a static alkaline mass of water as some origin of life
investigators portray it to have been. So let us review: 1. the
gravity and rotation of the earth created relentless currents that
carry material throughout the oceans. 2. Those relentless currents
would have endlessly cycled that material throughout the different pH
layers of the oceans. Next, we need to determine what kind of
material was endlessly cycled within those oceans.
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