Ammonium important source of early life on the earth

Credit: © Pavel Parmenov

Life on Earth depends on the availability of important elements like nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrients are omnipresent for all life, because they are essential for the formation of DNA, blueprints of life and protein, machinery. They are basically obtained from rocks and atmosphere, therefore their availability for life has been fluctuated with significant changes in the field of earth's environment in chemistry in geologic times.

Research published in Nature Geoscience reveals how the supply of these elements directly influenced the development of the oxygen environments of the Earth and was important for the development of early life on Earth.

The most dramatic change in Earth's history followed the development of oxygenated light synthesis, which originally transformed the planet by giving a source of carbon to the biosphere and a source of oxygen to the atmosphere, later on of the Great Depression Event (GOE) Closing something happened 2.3. Arab years ago.

Despite the vital importance of nutrients for life, availability of nitrogen and phosphorus in the pre-GOE oceans is not well understood, especially how these elements are supplied and / or responded to the oxidation of the planets.

Using the extraordinarily well-preserved rock samples associated with initial evidence for oxygen's photosynthesis 2.7 billion years ago, the team of researchers used to understand the feedback associated with the initial phases of the planet's oxidation, Checked the nitrogen cycle.

"At this time, precious little rock is available, which is suitable for the type of analysis done by us. Most old rocks that have been distorted and heated during the plate tectonic activity of 2.7 billion years, which are the basic signals of life Lies, "says Christopher Jr., Associate Professor of Earth Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Rock samples showed the first direct evidence of the construction of a large pool of ammonium in the pre-GOE oceans. This ammonium has provided sufficient source of nitrogen to fuel the initial biosphere and related oxygen production.

Reader Team Leader Aubrey Jarkeley at the University of St Andrews University says, "Today we think of Ammonium as an unpleasant smell in your cleaning supply, but it will work as you all. Eat a buffet for the living creatures, a significant improvement on the dumpster scrap, which they used to rely on in the history of Earth. "

As well as helping scientists understand the role of nitrogen cycles in global oxygenation, new conclusions also provide references for other nutrient feedback during early planet development.

"It has always been clear that through the history of the Earth the game of nutrient limit has been further and backward as life has developed and as circumstances have changed," says Juniyam.

Surprisingly, evidence for significant atmospheric oxidation does not appear until 400 million years, which means that some other nutrients such as phosphorus may have been important in establishing evolutionary motions.