Implications of Tides for Life on Exoplanets

As evident from the nearby examples of Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1, Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of low-mass stars are common. Here, we focus on such planetary systems and argue that their (oceanic) tides could be more prominent due to stronger tidal forces. We identify the conditions under which tides may exert a significant positive influence on biotic processes including abiogenesis, biological rhythms, nutrient upwelling, and stimulating photosynthesis. We conclude our analysis with the identification of large-scale algal blooms as potential temporal biosignatures in reflectance light curves that can arise indirectly as a consequence of strong tidal forces. Key Words: Tidal effects—Abiogenesis—Biological clocks—Planetary habitability—Temporal biosignatures. Astrobiology 18, 967–982.

• Publication year

  2017

• Venue

  Astrobiology

• Publication date

  2017-07-14

• Fields of study

  Biology, Physics, Geology, Environmental Science, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1089/ast.2017.1718arXiv 1707.04594PMID 30010383
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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