Precession-driven variations in phosphorus cycling facilitated Earth’s oxygenation in the early Proterozoic

IF 3.6 2区地球科学 Q1 GEOCHEMISTRY & GEOPHYSICS

Chemical Geology Pub Date : 2025-06-06 DOI:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2025.122857

Wytze K. Lenstra , Margriet L. Lantink , Rick Hennekam , Paul R.D. Mason , Gert-Jan Reichart , Frederik J. Hilgen , Caroline P. Slomp

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Abstract

Oxygenic photosynthesis in the ocean of the early Proterozoic may have been limited by the nutrient phosphorus. If so, precession-driven variations in riverine phosphorus input may have enhanced oxygenic photosynthesis and thereby contributed to the rise of atmospheric oxygen. Here, we combine geochemical analyses of 2.46-billion-year-old deposits of the Joffre Member of the Brockman Iron Formation (Australia) and results of a reactive transport model to reconstruct pathways of organic matter degradation and phosphorus cycling in oceanic sediments over a precession cycle. Our results support a conceptual model in which increased phosphorus availability during precession maxima at southern paleolatitudes drove net oxygen production by inducing increased reductant burial in the sediment (mainly as pyrite, vivianite and magnetite). During precession minima, legacy benthic release of methane may have enhanced photolysis of atmospheric methane, thereby allowing for additional net oxygen production. Hence, precession-driven variations in coupled carbon–phosphorus–oxygen cycling may have acted as an accelerator towards the Great Oxidation Event.

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在元古代早期，进动驱动的磷循环变化促进了地球的氧合作用

早元古代海洋中的含氧光合作用可能受到营养物磷的限制。如果是这样的话，由进动驱动的河流磷输入的变化可能增强了含氧光合作用，从而促进了大气中氧气的增加。本文结合24.6亿年前澳大利亚Brockman铁组Joffre段沉积物的地球化学分析和反应输运模型的结果，重建了进动循环中海洋沉积物中有机质降解和磷循环的途径。我们的研究结果支持了一个概念模型，在这个模型中，南方古纬度的进动最大值期间磷的有效性增加，通过诱导沉积物中还原剂（主要是黄铁矿、橄榄铁矿和磁铁矿）的增加来驱动净氧产量。在岁差极小期，遗留的底栖生物释放的甲烷可能增强了大气甲烷的光解作用，从而允许额外的净氧产量。因此，岁差驱动的碳-磷-氧耦合循环的变化可能是大氧化事件的加速器。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Chemical Geology 地学-地球化学与地球物理

CiteScore

7.20

自引率

10.30%

发文量

374

审稿时长

3.6 months

期刊介绍： Chemical Geology is an international journal that publishes original research papers on isotopic and elemental geochemistry, geochronology and cosmochemistry. The Journal focuses on chemical processes in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology, low- and high-temperature aqueous solutions, biogeochemistry, the environment and cosmochemistry. Papers that are field, experimentally, or computationally based are appropriate if they are of broad international interest. The Journal generally does not publish papers that are primarily of regional or local interest, or which are primarily focused on remediation and applied geochemistry. The Journal also welcomes innovative papers dealing with significant analytical advances that are of wide interest in the community and extend significantly beyond the scope of what would be included in the methods section of a standard research paper.