英国南安普顿大学Stockey, Richard G.和美国斯坦福大学Sperling, Erik A.团队合作，揭示了新元古代和古生代大气氧和海洋生产力的持续增加。相关论文发表在2024年7月2日出版的《自然—地球科学》杂志上。
研究团队对来自新元古代和古生代沉积记录的大型地球化学数据集，和相关地质背景进行了统计学习分析，然后使用地球系统建模将氧化还原敏感的痕量金属，和有机碳浓度的趋势与地球海洋和大气的氧化作用联系起来。研究团队没有发现新元古代晚期地球海洋大规模氧化的证据。
然而，课题组确实重建了大气氧气和海洋生产力的长期适度增长。地球系统的这些变化会增加浅水栖息地的溶解氧和食物供应，而在这段地质时间里，主要动物群开始辐射。这种方法为寒武纪辐射的潜在生理驱动因素提供了一些最直接的证据，同时强调了晚古生代氧化作用在现代地球系统演化中的重要性。
据介绍，地质上快速的新元古代氧化事件通常与化石记录中海洋动物群的出现有关。然而，关于沉积地球化学记录中的哪些证据(如果有的话)，有力地支持了在动物出现之前地表氧气的持续变化，仍然存在争议。
附：英文原文
Title: Sustained increases in atmospheric oxygen and marine productivity in the Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic eras
Author: Stockey, Richard G., Cole, Devon B., Farrell, Una C., Agi, Heda, Boag, Thomas H., Brocks, Jochen J., Canfield, Don E., Cheng, Meng, Crockford, Peter W., Cui, Huan, Dahl, Tais W., Del Mouro, Lucas, Dewing, Keith, Dornbos, Stephen Q., Emmings, Joseph F., Gaines, Robert R., Gibson, Timothy M., Gill, Benjamin C., Gilleaudeau, Geoffrey J., Goldberg, Karin, Guilbaud, Romain, Halverson, Galen, Hammarlund, Emma U., Hantsoo, Kalev, Henderson, Miles A., Henderson, Charles M., Hodgskiss, Malcolm S. W., Jarrett, Amber J. M., Johnston, David T., Kabanov, Pavel, Kimmig, Julien, Knoll, Andrew H., Kunzmann, Marcus, LeRoy, Matthew A., Li, Chao, Loydell, David K., Macdonald, Francis A., Magnall, Joseph M., Mills, N. Tanner, Och, Lawrence M., OConnell, Brennan, Pags, Anais, Peters, Shanan E., Porter, Susannah M., Poulton, Simon W., Ritzer, Samantha R., Rooney, Alan D., Schoepfer, Shane, Smith, Emily F., Strauss, Justin V., Uhlein, Gabriel Jub, White, Tristan, Wood, Rachel A., Woltz, Christina R., Yurchenko, Inessa, Planavsky, Noah J., Sperling, Erik A.
Issue&Volume: 2024-07-02
Abstract: A geologically rapid Neoproterozoic oxygenation event is commonly linked to the appearance of marine animal groups in the fossil record. However, there is still debate about what evidence from the sedimentary geochemical record—if any—provides strong support for a persistent shift in surface oxygen immediately preceding the rise of animals. We present statistical learning analyses of a large dataset of geochemical data and associated geological context from the Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic sedimentary record and then use Earth system modelling to link trends in redox-sensitive trace metal and organic carbon concentrations to the oxygenation of Earth’s oceans and atmosphere. We do not find evidence for the wholesale oxygenation of Earth’s oceans in the late Neoproterozoic era. We do, however, reconstruct a moderate long-term increase in atmospheric oxygen and marine productivity. These changes to the Earth system would have increased dissolved oxygen and food supply in shallow-water habitats during the broad interval of geologic time in which the major animal groups first radiated. This approach provides some of the most direct evidence for potential physiological drivers of the Cambrian radiation, while highlighting the importance of later Palaeozoic oxygenation in the evolution of the modern Earth system.
DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01479-1
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01479-1