Focus
Oxygen evolution on Earth
- Focus
- April 2014 Volume 7 No 4 pp245-320
Image credit: ©Pix/Alamy
Today, life on Earth depends on the availability of free oxygen, whether in the atmosphere, oceans or aquatic systems. However, oxygen concentrations were low and variable for most of the first four billion years of Earth's history. In this web focus, we bring together a collection of research and review articles as well as opinion pieces that trace the origins of oxygenic photosynthesis and the factors that allowed oxygen to accumulate in the oceans and atmosphere
Editorial
Evolutionary two-step- p245
doi:10.1038/ngeo2136
The march from an Archaean microbial world to the modern reign of more complex life was slow but not steady. Instead, the rise of the animals may have resulted from an intricate back-and-forth between evolving life and the Earth's environment.
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Books & Arts
Earth's oxygen unravelled- p248
doi:10.1038/ngeo2129
Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History by Donald E. Canfield
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News & Views
Palaeontology: Late to the mix- p253
Alicia Newton
doi:10.1038/ngeo2125
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Early Earth: Cyanobacteria at work- pp253-254
Alan J. Kaufman
doi:10.1038/ngeo2128
Oxygen-producing photosynthesis must have evolved before the pervasive oxidation of the atmosphere around 2.4 billion years ago, but how long before is unclear. Geochemical analyses of ancient sedimentary rocks now suggest that cyanobacteria generated oxygen at least 3 billion years ago.
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Review
Co-evolution of eukaryotes and ocean oxygenation in the Neoproterozoic era- pp257-265
FREE ACCESSTimothy M. Lenton, Richard A. Boyle, Simon W. Poulton, Graham A. Shields-Zhou & Nicholas J. Butterfield
doi:10.1038/ngeo2108
The oxygenation of the Earth's deep oceans is often thought to have triggered the evolution of simple animals. A review article proposes that instead, the evolution of animal life set off a series of biogeochemical feedbacks that promoted the oxygenation of the deep sea.
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Letter
Evidence for oxygenic photosynthesis half a billion years before the Great Oxidation Event- pp283-286
Noah J. Planavsky, Dan Asael, Axel Hofmann, Christopher T. Reinhard, Stefan V. Lalonde, Andrew Knudsen, Xiangli Wang, Frantz Ossa Ossa, Ernesto Pecoits, Albertus J. B. Smith, Nicolas J. Beukes, Andrey Bekker, Thomas M. Johnson, Kurt O. Konhauser, Timothy W. Lyons & Olivier J. Rouxel
doi:10.1038/ngeo2122
The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis should have occurred some time before the oxidation of Earth's atmosphere 2.5 billion years ago. The molybdenum isotopic signature of shallow marine rocks that formed at least 2.95 billion years ago is consistent with deposition in waters that were receiving oxygen from photosynthesis at least half a billion years before the oxidation of the atmosphere.
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From the archive
News & Views
Palaeontology: Breathing room for early animals- pp354-355
Jake Bailey
doi:10.1038/ngeo1170
Animals originated in a world with marine oxygen levels only a fraction of those found in today's oceans. Observations of microbial habitats in present-day lagoons suggest that early animals could have found refuge in oxygen-producing mats.
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Early Earth: Microbes and the rise of oxygen- pp522-523
Andrew D. Czaja
doi:10.1038/ngeo929
Reconstructions of atmospheric chemistry and microbial life early in the Earth's history have been contentious. Observations increasingly point to the evolution of complex and variable environments earlier in time.
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Feature
The mystery of atmospheric oxygen- pp9-10
James Kasting
doi:10.1038/ngeo1684
Readily available O2 is vital to life as we know it. James Kasting looks at how and when the first whiffs of oxygen began to reach the Earth's atmosphere.
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Letters
Potential influence of sulphur bacteria on Palaeoproterozoic phosphogenesis- pp27-29
Aivo Lepland, Lauri Joosu, Kalle Kirsimäe, Anthony R. Prave, Alexander E. Romashkin, Alenka E. Črne, Adam P. Martin, Anthony E. Fallick, Peeter Somelar, Kärt Üpraus, Kaarel Mänd, Nick M. W. Roberts, Mark A. van Zuilen, Richard Wirth & Anja Schreiber
doi:10.1038/ngeo2005
The first known phosphorus-rich deposits formed 2 billion years ago, but their origins are unclear. Geochemical and palaeontological analyses of 2-billion-year-old deposits from northwest Russia suggest that the presence of sulphur-oxidizing bacteria and a sharp oxic–anoxic transition in the sediments allowed for phosphorus accumulation in this setting.
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Bioavailability of zinc in marine systems through time- pp125-128
Clint Scott, Noah J. Planavsky, Chris L. Dupont, Brian Kendall, Benjamin C. Gill, Leslie J. Robbins, Kathryn F. Husband, Gail L. Arnold, Boswell A. Wing, Simon W. Poulton, Andrey Bekker, Ariel D. Anbar, Kurt O. Konhauser & Timothy W. Lyons
doi:10.1038/ngeo1679
Zinc is a marine nutrient that may have been limited in the early oceans. Estimates of marine zinc availability through time suggest that values were instead near-modern during the Proterozoic eon.
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Contributions to late Archaean sulphur cycling by life on land- pp722-725
Eva E. Stüeken, David C. Catling & Roger Buick
doi:10.1038/ngeo1585
Life on land dates back at least 2.7 billion years, but the effects of this early terrestrial biosphere on biogeochemical cycling are poorly constrained. Marine sulphur data and geochemical modelling suggest that microbial pyrite weathering has transferred a substantial amount of sulphur to the oceans for at least 2.5 billion years.
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Possible evolution of mobile animals in association with microbial mats- pp372-375
Murray Gingras, James W. Hagadorn, Adolf Seilacher, Stefan V. Lalonde, Ernesto Pecoits, Daniel Petrash & Kurt O. Konhauser
doi:10.1038/ngeo1142
The evolution of marine complex animals about 635 million years ago took place in relatively low-oxygen waters. An analysis of a low-oxygen, hypersaline lagoon suggests these early animals may have obtained both oxygen and food from widespread microbial mats.
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Spatial variability in oceanic redox structure 1.8 billion years ago- pp486-490
Simon W. Poulton, Philip W. Fralick & Donald E. Canfield
doi:10.1038/ngeo889
The deposition of iron formations ceased about 1.84 billion years ago. Reconstructions of ocean chemistry suggest that the advent of euxinic conditions along ocean margins preferentially removed dissolved iron from the water column in the form of the mineral pyrite, inhibiting widespread iron-oxide mineral deposition.
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Articles
A bistable organic-rich atmosphere on the Neoarchaean Earth- pp359-363
Aubrey L. Zerkle, Mark W. Claire, Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman, James Farquhar & Simon W. Poulton
doi:10.1038/ngeo1425
Before the rise of oxygen, the atmosphere of the early Earth may have consisted of an organic haze. Geochemical data and modelling suggest that from 2.65 to 2.5?Gyr ago, several transitions between hazy and haze-free atmospheric conditions occurred, potentially linked to variations in biogenic methane production.
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Pervasive oxygenation along late Archaean ocean margins- pp647-652
Brian Kendall, Christopher T. Reinhard, Timothy W. Lyons, Alan J. Kaufman, Simon W. Poulton & Ariel D. Anbar
doi:10.1038/ngeo942
The photosynthetic production of oxygen in the ocean is thought to have begun at least 2.7 billion years ago. The geochemistry of marine sediments deposited 2.6 billion years ago suggests that ocean margins were oxygenated at least 100 million years before the first significant increase in atmospheric oxygen concentrations.
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The cycling and redox state of nitrogen in the Archaean ocean- pp725-729
Linda V. Godfrey & Paul G. Falkowski
doi:10.1038/ngeo633
The initial production of oxygen in early Earth's oceans altered the redox chemistry and cycling of nitrogen. A record of nitrogen isotopes from preserved organic matter indicates nitrogen cycling in the presence of free oxygen 2.67 billion years ago, about 200 million years before the first geochemical evidence for atmospheric free oxygen.
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