Reconciling discrepant minor sulfur isotope records of the Great Oxidation Event

Uveges, Benjamin T.; Izon, Gareth; Ono, Shuhei; Beukes, Nicolas J.; Summons, Roger E.

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-35820-w

Cited by 20 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…If the net supply rate of the oxidizing power continuously increased over the early Paleoproterozoic (e.g., continental growth and the following increase in the riverine P supply rate and the burial rate of OC), the GOE would have been a permanent event without a return to the anoxic atmosphere. However, based on the records of the S‐MIF, it has been actively discussed that atmospheric p O 2 might have fluctuated during the early Paleoproterozoic (Izon et al, 2022; Luo et al, 2022; Poulton et al, 2021; Uveges et al, 2023; Warke et al, 2020; Wogan et al, 2022). The lack of the bistability of atmospheric p O 2 across the GOE might have allowed fluctuation in atmospheric p O 2 when the source and sink terms of the global redox budget were perturbed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of iron and oxygen biogeochemical cycles during the Precambrian

Watanabe,

Tajika,

Ozaki

2023

Geobiology

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Iron (Fe) is an essential element for life, and its geochemical cycle is intimately linked to the coupled history of life and Earth's environment. The accumulated geologic records indicate that ferruginous waters existed in the Precambrian oceans not only before the first major rise of atmospheric O2 levels (Great Oxidation Event; GOE) during the Paleoproterozoic, but also during the rest of the Proterozoic. However, the interactive evolution of the biogeochemical cycles of O2 and Fe during the Archean–Proterozoic remains ambiguous. Here, we develop a biogeochemical model to investigate the coupled biogeochemical evolution of Fe–O2–P–C cycles across the GOE. Our model demonstrates that the marine Fe cycle was less sensitive to changes in the production rate of O2 before the GOE (atmospheric pO2 < 10−6 PAL; present atmospheric level). When the P supply rate to the ocean exceeds a certain threshold, the GOE occurs and atmospheric pO2 rises to ~10−3–10−1 PAL. After the GOE, the marine Fe(II) concentration is highly sensitive to atmospheric pO2, suggesting that the marine redox landscape during the Proterozoic may have fluctuated between ferruginous conditions and anoxic non‐ferruginous conditions with sulfidic water masses around continental margins. At a certain threshold value of atmospheric pO2 of ~0.3% PAL, the primary oxidation pathway of Fe(II) shifts from the activity of Fe(II)‐utilizing anoxygenic photoautotrophs in sunlit surface waters to abiotic process in the deep ocean. This is accompanied by a shift in the primary deposition site of Fe(III) hydroxides from the surface ocean to the deep sea, providing a plausible mechanistic explanation for the observed cessation of iron formations during the Proterozoic.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of iron and oxygen biogeochemical cycles during the Precambrian

Watanabe,

Tajika,

Ozaki

2023

Geobiology

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“…In the metabolism evolution model, the LJE was enabled by the oxygenation of the atmosphere and the formation of a stratospheric ozone layer between 2.45 and 2.3 Ga ( 49 – 51 ). An ozone layer significantly reduced atmospheric UVB and UVC transmission; its formation as a permanent feature provided protection from this ionizing radiation to terrestrial and shallow water environments exposed to direct sunlight ( 41 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the transition from an anoxic to oxygenated atmosphere, high δ 13 C carb values are possible [e.g., reference ( 62 )]. The explanatory metabolism evolution model predicts that high δ 13 C carb values would be associated with low atmospheric CH 4 and the presence of an ozone layer as documented by an absence of mass-independent sulfur isotopic signatures ( 49 , 51 , 60 , 62 , 63 ). Intervals of low atmospheric CH 4 could be indicated by cooler temperatures, including glaciation, because it is a very potent greenhouse gas.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere induced metabolic and ecologic transformations recorded in the Lomagundi-Jatuli carbon isotopic excursion

Sumner

2024

Appl Environ Microbiol

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The oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere represents the quintessential transformation of a planetary surface by microbial processes. In turn, atmospheric oxygenation transformed metabolic evolution; molecular clock models indicate the diversification and ecological expansion of respiratory metabolisms in the several hundred million years following atmospheric oxygenation. Across this same interval, the geological record preserves 13 C enrichment in some carbonate rocks, called the Lomagundi-Jatuli excursion (LJE). By combining data from geologic and genomic records, a self-consistent metabolic evolution model emerges for the LJE. First, fermentation and methanogenesis were major processes remineralizing organic carbon before atmospheric oxygenation. Once an ozone layer formed, shallow water and exposed environments were shielded from UVB/C radiation, allowing the expansion of cyanobacterial primary productivity. High primary productivity and methanogenesis led to preferential removal of 12 C into organic carbon and CH 4 . Extreme and variable 13 C enrichments in carbonates were caused by 13 C-depleted CH 4 loss to the atmosphere. Through time, aerobic respiration diversified and became ecologically widespread, as did other new metabolisms. Respiration displaced fermentation and methanogenesis as the dominant organic matter remineralization processes. As CH 4 loss slowed, dissolved inorganic carbon in shallow environments was no longer highly 13 C enriched. Thus, the loss of extreme 13 C enrichments in carbonates marks the establishment of a new microbial mat ecosystem structure, one dominated by respiratory processes distributed along steep redox gradients. These gradients allowed the exchange of metabolic by-products among metabolically diverse organisms, providing novel metabolic opportunities. Thus, the microbially induced oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere led to the transformation of microbial ecosystems, an archetypal example of planetary microbiology. IMPORTANCE The oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere represents the most extensive known chemical transformation of a planetary surface by microbial processes. In turn, atmospheric oxygenation transformed metabolic evolution by providing oxidants independent of the sites of photosynthesis. Thus, the evolutionary changes during this interval and their effects on planetary-scale biogeochemical cycles are fundamental to our understanding of the interdependencies among genomes, organisms, ecosystems, elemental cycles, and Earth’s surface chemistry through time.

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“…Notably, reports of MIF-S within the Timeball Hill Formation have been used to argue for younger regressions toward an oxygen-free atmospheric state (Poulton et al, 2021). However, the isolated and ephemeral nature of these rare instances of post-2.3 Ga MIF-S requires exceptionally short-term oscillations (Uveges et al, 2023) deserving further exploration. Whether an abrupt singular atmospheric change as observed in South Africa is representative of the global signal or whether an oscillating loss of MIF-S is recorded elsewhere, requires further investigation of global sedimentary correlations, the interaction of different isotopic sulfur pools, crustal MIF-S recycling, atmospheric modeling as well as a better understanding of the tipping points in the Earth system through biological, oceanic and geological feedback loops.…”

Section: Implications For the Goementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Consequently, the geological transition from MIF-S to MDF-S recorded in the marine sediments deposited ~2.45-2.32 Ga ago is an exceptional marker in Earth's progressive oxygenation from a planet with a weakly reducing to neutral atmosphere into a planet with an oxygen-bearing atmosphere. However, recent studies have shown that interpreting the sulfur isotopic record remain hindered by processes such as crustal recycling of material carrying a MIF-S signal, potential short term atmospheric oscillations and spatial isotopic variability within the marine S-pool (Izon et al, 2022;Philippot et al, 2018;Uveges et al, 2023).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%