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The rise of oxygen in Earth’s early ocean and atmosphere

Nature volume 506, pages 307–315 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The rapid increase of carbon dioxide concentration in Earth’s modern atmosphere is a matter of major concern. But for the atmosphere of roughly two-and-half billion years ago, interest centres on a different gas: free oxygen (O2) spawned by early biological production. The initial increase of O2 in the atmosphere, its delayed build-up in the ocean, its increase to near-modern levels in the sea and air two billion years later, and its cause-and-effect relationship with life are among the most compelling stories in Earth’s history.

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Figure 1: Evolution of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen content through time.
Figure 2: Summary of carbon (black) and sulphur (red and grey) isotope data through Earth’s history.
Figure 3: Ocean ventilation and evolving ocean redox structure.

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Acknowledgements

Funding from NSF-EAR, the NASA Exobiology Program, the NASA Astrobiology Institute, and the Agouron Institute supported this work. C.T.R. acknowledges support from an O. K. Earl Postdoctoral Fellowship in Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. N.J.P. acknowledges support from NSF-EAR-PDF. Comments and criticism from A. Bekker, D. Erwin, I. Halevy and D. Johnston improved the manuscript. A. Bekker was helpful in discussions about the GOE and suggested the acronym ‘GOT’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside, 92521, California, USA

    Timothy W. Lyons, Christopher T. Reinhard & Noah J. Planavsky

  2. Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Christopher T. Reinhard

  3. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, 30332, Georgia, USA

    Christopher T. Reinhard

  4. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, 06511, Connecticut, USA

    Noah J. Planavsky

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  1. Timothy W. Lyons
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Contributions

C.T.R. and N.J.P. designed the model for O2-producing photosynthesis and its relationship to Archaean organic carbon presented in Box 1. C.T.R. and N.J.P. compiled the database, and C.T.R. performed the modelling presented in Box 1. T.W.L. wrote the manuscript with major contributions from C.T.R. and N.J.P.

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Correspondence to Timothy W. Lyons.

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Lyons, T., Reinhard, C. & Planavsky, N. The rise of oxygen in Earth’s early ocean and atmosphere. Nature 506, 307–315 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13068

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