Raw data for manuscript "Trace metal and phosphorus enrichments in cyanobacteria cells and cyanobacterial precipitated minerals"

The enrichment of trace metals and other life-essential elements, like phosphorus, in carbonates may be a signature of microbial life. Enrichments of such elements in microbial carbonate facies in the rock record have been attributed to life in previous studies, but the biologic origin of these enrichments is contentious. We experimentally tested the hypothesis that enrichments of life-important trace elements occur in both cells and carbonate minerals that form as a result of cellular photosynthesis for the cyanobacteria Synechococcus PCC 8806. The data in this repository represent elements measured for our cell samples, mineral samples, and solution samples, using an inductively coupled plasma-source mass spectrometer (ICP-MS; B, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu and Zn) and ICP- atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES; Ca, K, Mg, P) at the Laboratory for Isotopes and Metals in the Environment (LIME) at Penn State University. This repository also shows data obtained from electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA) which provided spot-specific ion concentration data (vs. Bulk data as is for ICPMS/AES) and was performed in the Materials Characterization Lab (MCL) at Penn State. Additionally, the code used from the open-sourced geochemistry R package, phreeqc, can be found in this repository as a text file. The findings and conclusions of this data set will be presented in a manuscript submitted to the journal Minerals.