Cryptic photosynthesis, Extrasolar planetary oxygen without a surface biological signature.pdf

Cryptic photosynthesis – extrasolar planetary oxygen without a surface biological signature Charles S Cockell, Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research, Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK Lisa Kaltenegger, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 60 Garden St. MS20, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA John A Raven, Division of Plant Sciences, University of Dundee at SCRI, Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK On the Earth, photosynthetic organisms are responsible for the production of nearly all of the oxygen in the atmosphere. On the land, vegetation reflects in the visible, leading to a ‘red edge’ which has been proposed as a biosignature for life on extrasolar planets. However, in many regions of the Earth, and particularly where surface conditions are extreme, for example in hot and cold deserts, photosynthetic organisms can be driven into and under substrates where light is still sufficient for photosynthesis. These communities exhibit no detectable surface spectral signature. The same is true of the assemblages of photosynthetic organisms at more than a few metres depth in water bodies. These communities are widespread and dominate local photosynthetic productivity. We review known cryptic photosynthetic communities and their productivity. We use a radiative transfer model to link geomicrobiology with observational astronomy and calculate the disk-averaged spectra and identify detectable features that would result from a planet dominated by such a biota. The hypothetical cryptic photosynthesis worlds discussed here are Earth-analogs that would not exhibit a biological surface feature in the disc-averaged spectrum. INTRODUCTION The determination of the presence of biological processes on extrasolar planets will depend on the detection of spectral signatures that indicate habitability (see e.g. Owen 1980; Léger et al. 1993; Des Marais et al., 2002; Selsis et al., 20