The geomicrobiology of catastrophe: A comparison of microbial colonization in post-volcanic and impact environments

Abstract

During microbial life's tenure on the Earth it has been subject to catastrophic disturbances both at the local and global scale. The number of mechanisms for these disturbances is very large and they include: storms, fires, earthquakes, ocean turnover and disease. However, two mechanisms of change have had a particularly profound influence exerted through geological changes wrought from within and outside the Earth - volcanism and asteroid and comet impact events, respectively. Both of these mechanisms of geological change have been linked to past mass extinctions (Alvarez et al. 1980; Wignall 2001). Although there is often a focus on the negative consequences of these changes and unravelling their effects on the global scale is necessary to understand their influence on the course of biological evolution, an equally pertinent line of enquiry is to understand the opportunities created in post-volcanic and impact environments and thus the way in which devastation caused by these events might provide new possibilities for life's persistence on the Earth through time. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.