Phosphorus availability on the early Earth and the impacts of life
Walton, C.R.; Ewens, S.; Coates, J.D.; Blake, R.E.; Planavsky, N.J.; Reinhard, C.; Ju, P.; Hao, J.; Pasek, M.A. (2023). Phosphorus availability on the early Earth and the impacts of life. Nature Geoscience 16(5): 399-409. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01167-6
In: Nature Geoscience. Nature Publishing Group: London. ISSN 1752-0894; e-ISSN 1752-0908, more
|  |
| Authors | | Top |
- Walton, C.R.
- Ewens, S.
- Coates, J.D.
|
- Blake, R.E.
- Planavsky, N.J.
- Reinhard, C.
|
- Ju, P.
- Hao, J.
- Pasek, M.A.
|
| Abstract |
Phosphorus (P) is critical to modern biochemical functions and can control ecosystem growth. It was presumably important as a reagent in prebiotic chemistry. However, on the early Earth, P sources may have consisted primarily of poorly soluble calcium phosphates, which may have rendered phosphate as a minimally available nutrient or reagent if these minerals were the sole source. Here, we review aqueous P availability on the early Earth (>2.5 Gyr ago), considering both mineral sources and geochemical sinks relevant to its solvation, and activation by abiotic and biological pathways. Phosphorus on Earth’s early surface would have been present as a mixture of phosphate minerals, as a minor element in silicate minerals, and in reactive, reduced phases from accreted dust, meteorites and asteroids. These P sources would have weathered and plausibly furnished the prebiotic Earth with abundant and potentially reactive P. After the origin of a biosphere, life evolved to draw on not just reactive available P sources, but also insoluble and unreactive sources. The rise of an ecosystem dependent on this element at some point forged a P-limited biosphere, with evolutionary stress forcing the efficient extraction and recycling of P from both abiotic and biotic sources and sinks. |
|
