Questioning the Paradigm of a Phosphate‐Limited Archean Biosphere

Abstract

Abstract The nature of Archean life remains one of the most contested topics in the study of Earth history. The debate may be formulated as follows: When did present day metabolisms emerge to ecological significance? What limited the productivity of early biospheres? How did the existence and productivity of individual metabolisms affect the chemistry and oxidation state of the ocean‐atmosphere? In a new study, Ingalls et al. (2022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098100) apply a novel proxy, carbonate‐associated phosphate (CAP), to Neoarchean carbonate rocks and argue that seawater in the Neoarchean was more phosphate‐rich than through Phanerozoic time. Although the interpretation of CAP signals is currently burdened by uncertainties regarding Archean seawater chemistry, their results suggest Archean phosphate levels were comparable to modern seawater, if not higher. If true, then Earth's most successful metabolism, oxygenic photosynthesis, had either not achieved ecological prominence to exploit the relatively phosphate‐rich waters, or was curtailed by other under‐appreciated mechanisms.

Keywords

• phosphorus cycle
• Archean biosphere
• primary productivity
• oxygenic photosynthesis
• nutrient limitation
• Great Oxidation Event