Aspects of the biological carbon cycle in a ca. 3.42-billion-year-old marine ecosystem

Microbial life on Earth was well established in the Paleoarchean, but insight into early ecosystem diversity and thus, the complexity of the early biological carbon cycle is limited. Here we investigated four carbonaceous chert samples from the lower platform facies of the ca. 3.42-billion-year-old Buck Reef Chert, Barberton greenstone belt. The analysis on multiple scales revealed exceptionally well-preserved carbonaceous matter, even on molecular level (aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons), resulting from rapid silicification. Geochemical evidence from stable carbon and multiple sulfur isotopes supports the presence of different microbial metabolisms in the Paleoarchean ecosystem. The local biological carbon cycle was dominated by photoautotrophs, but autotrophic sulfate reducers and methane- or acetate-producing microbes were also present. In areas of microbial methane or acetate release, methanotrophs or acetotrophs contributed to the overall biomass. These results highlight the metabolic diversity in the lower platform environment of the Buck Reef Chert, and underline that an advanced biological carbon cycle already existed in the early Archean.