Phosphorus (P) is a crucial structural component of living systems and central to modern bioenergetics. P cycles through terrestrial geochemical reservoirs via complex physical and chemical processes. Terrestrial life has altered these fluxes between reservoirs as it evolved, which is why it is of interest to explore planetary P flux evolution in the absence of biology. This is especially true, since environmental P availability affects life’s ability to alter other geochemical cycles, which could then be an example of niche construction. Understanding how P reservoir transport affects environmental P availability helps parameterize how the evolution of P reservoirs influenced the emergence of life on Earth, and potentially other planetary bodies. Geochemical P fluxes likely change as planets evolve, and element cycling models that take those changes into account can provide insights on how P fluxes evolve abiotically. There is considerable uncertainty in many aspects of modern and historical global P cycling, including Earth’s initial P endowment and distribution after core formation and how terrestrial P interactions between reservoirs and fluxes and their rates have evolved over time. We present here a dynamical box model for Earth’s abiological P reservoir and flux evolution. This model suggests that in the absence of biology, long term planetary geochemical cycling on planets similar to Earth with respect to geodynamism tends to bring P to surface reservoirs, and biology, including human civilization, tends to move P to subductable marine reservoirs.

Phosphorus (P) is a crucial structural and bioenergetic component of living systems. P cycles through terrestrial geochemical reservoirs via complex physical and chemical processes. Terrestrial life has altered the fluxes between these reservoirs as it evolved, thus it is of interest to explore planetary P flux evolution in the absence of biology. This is especially true since environmental P availability may have influenced the emergence of life on Earth, and affected life’s ability to alter other geochemical cycles, and these processes may be common to other planets. Geochemical P fluxes likely change as planets evolve, and element cycling models that take those changes into account can provide insights on how P fluxes evolve abiotically. There is considerable uncertainty in many aspects of modern and historical global P cycling, including Earth’s initial P endowment and distribution after differentiation and how P interactions between reservoirs and fluxes have evolved over time. We present here a user-configurable dynamical box model for Earth’s abiological P evolution. This model suggests that in the absence of biology, long term planetary geochemical cycling on planets similar to Earth tend to bring P to surface reservoirs, while biology tends to move P to subductable marine reservoirs.