TY - JOUR
T1 - Nitrogen fixation sustained productivity in the wake of the palaeoproterozoic great oxygenation event
AU - Luo, Genming
AU - Junium, Christopher K.
AU - Izon, Gareth
AU - Ono, Shuhei
AU - Beukes, Nicolas J.
AU - Algeo, Thomas J.
AU - Cui, Ying
AU - Xie, Shucheng
AU - Summons, Roger E.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by awards from the Simons Foundation (Simons Collaboration on the Origins of Life) and NSF (EAR-1338810 EAR-1455258). Funding was also provided by the National Key R&D Project of China (2016YFA0601104 and 2016YFC0601005), the 973 program (2013CB955704), the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (41472170), the 111 project (B08030) and a grant from the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa to N.J.B. The Council for Geoscience in South Africa, specifically those at the National Core Library in Donkerhoek, are thanked for facilitating access to the core materials. Carolyn Colonero is acknowledged for assistance with nitrogen and carbon isotope analyses at MIT. We thank Timothy Lyons for his comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - The marine nitrogen cycle is dominated by redox-controlled biogeochemical processes and, therefore, is likely to have been revolutionised in response to Earth-surface oxygenation. The details, timing, and trajectory of nitrogen cycle evolution, however, remain elusive. Here we couple nitrogen and carbon isotope records from multiple drillcores through the Rooihoogte-Timeball Hill Formations from across the Carletonville area of the Kaapvaal Craton where the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) and its aftermath are recorded. Our data reveal that aerobic nitrogen cycling, featuring metabolisms involving nitrogen oxyanions, was well established prior to the GOE and that ammonium may have dominated the dissolved nitrogen inventory. Pronounced signals of diazotrophy imply a stepwise evolution, with a temporary intermediate stage where both ammonium and nitrate may have been scarce. We suggest that the emergence of the modern nitrogen cycle, with metabolic processes that approximate their contemporary balance, was retarded by low environmental oxygen availability.
AB - The marine nitrogen cycle is dominated by redox-controlled biogeochemical processes and, therefore, is likely to have been revolutionised in response to Earth-surface oxygenation. The details, timing, and trajectory of nitrogen cycle evolution, however, remain elusive. Here we couple nitrogen and carbon isotope records from multiple drillcores through the Rooihoogte-Timeball Hill Formations from across the Carletonville area of the Kaapvaal Craton where the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) and its aftermath are recorded. Our data reveal that aerobic nitrogen cycling, featuring metabolisms involving nitrogen oxyanions, was well established prior to the GOE and that ammonium may have dominated the dissolved nitrogen inventory. Pronounced signals of diazotrophy imply a stepwise evolution, with a temporary intermediate stage where both ammonium and nitrate may have been scarce. We suggest that the emergence of the modern nitrogen cycle, with metabolic processes that approximate their contemporary balance, was retarded by low environmental oxygen availability.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-03361-2
DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-03361-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 29515129
AN - SCOPUS:85046986084
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 9
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 978
ER -