Redox stabilization of the atmosphere and oceans by phosphorus-limited marine productivity
Data from modern and ancient marine sediments demonstrate that burial of the limiting nutrient phosphorus is less efficient when bottom waters are low in oxygen. Mass-balance calculations using a coupled model of the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, phosphorus, oxygen, and iron indicate that the redox dependence of phosphorus burial in the oceans provides a powerful forcing mechanism for balancing production and consumption of atmospheric oxygen over geologic time. The oxygen-phosphorus coupling further guards against runaway ocean anoxia. Phosphorus-mediated redox stabilization of the atmosphere and oceans may have been crucial to the radiation of higher life forms during the Phanerozoic.
Van Cappellen
P
P
School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta 30332-0340, USA.
Ingall
E D
ED
D001272:Atmosphere / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005290:Ferric Compounds / Q000032:analysis; D005296:Ferrous Compounds / Q000032:analysis; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D055593:Geological Phenomena; D005844:Geology; D008956:Models, Chemical; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010100:Oxygen / Q000032:analysis*; D010163:Paleontology; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*
D005290:Ferric Compounds; D005296:Ferrous Compounds; D010758:Phosphorus; D010100:Oxygen