Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Biogeochemistry

Metals for microbes in the ancient sea

Nature Geoscience volume 16, pages 1078–1079 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Identifying the metal micronutrients required by early life could help to illuminate how primitive organisms arose, but which metals were biologically available in ancient seawater has not been determined. A new experimental framework suggests how the precipitation of iron minerals from seawater reduced the availability of key metals, particularly zinc, copper and vanadium.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Iron silicates take up biologically important trace metals in substantial amounts.

References

  1. Williams, R. J. P. & da Silva, J. J. R. F. The Chemistry of Evolution: the Development of our Ecosystem (Elsevier Science, 2005).

  2. Robbins, L. J. et al. Earth Sci. Rev. 163, 323–348 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Rasmussen, B., Krapež, B., Muhling, J. R. & Suvorova, A. Geology 43, 303–306 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Tostevin, R. & Ahmed, I. A. M. Nat. Geosci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01294-0 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Tosca, N. J., Guggenheim, S. & Pufahl, P. K. GSA Bull. 128, 511–530 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hinz, I. L., Rossi, L., Ma, C. & Johnson, J. E. Am. Mineral. 108, 1732–1753 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Templeton, A. S. & Ellison, E. T. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 378, 20180423 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Tosca, N. J. & Tutolo, B. M. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 352, 51–68 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Halevy, I. & Bachan, A. Science 355, 1069–1071 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Krissansen-Totton, J., Arney, G. N. & Catling, D. C. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 115, 4105–4110 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Jena E. Johnson

Authors
  1. Jena E. Johnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jena E. Johnson.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Johnson, J.E. Metals for microbes in the ancient sea. Nat. Geosci. 16, 1078–1079 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01314-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01314-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing