Transient fertilization of a post-Sturtian Snowball ocean margin with dissolved phosphate by clay minerals

Ernest Chi Fru (), Jalila Al Bahri, Christophe Brosson, Olabode Bankole, Jérémie Aubineau, Abderrazzak El Albani, Alexandra Nederbragt, Anthony Oldroyd, Alasdair Skelton, Linda Lowhagen, David Webster, Wilson Y. Fantong, Benjamin J. W. Mills, Lewis J. Alcott, Kurt O. Konhauser and Timothy W. Lyons
Additional contact information
Ernest Chi Fru: Cardiff University
Jalila Al Bahri: Cardiff University
Christophe Brosson: Cardiff University
Olabode Bankole: Université de Poitiers UMR 7285-CNRS, Institut de Chimie des Milieux et Matériaux de Poitiers - 5, rue Albert Turpin (Bât B35)
Jérémie Aubineau: Géosciences Environnement Toulouse, CNRS UMR 5563 (CNRS/UPS/IRD/CNES), Université de Toulouse, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées
Abderrazzak El Albani: Université de Poitiers UMR 7285-CNRS, Institut de Chimie des Milieux et Matériaux de Poitiers - 5, rue Albert Turpin (Bât B35)
Alexandra Nederbragt: Cardiff University
Anthony Oldroyd: Cardiff University
Alasdair Skelton: Stockholm University
Linda Lowhagen: Stockholm University
David Webster: Stockholm University
Wilson Y. Fantong: Institute of Geological and Mining Research (IRGM), Box 4110
Benjamin J. W. Mills: University of Leeds
Lewis J. Alcott: University of Leeds
Kurt O. Konhauser: University of Alberta
Timothy W. Lyons: University of California

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Marine sedimentary rocks deposited across the Neoproterozoic Cryogenian Snowball interval, ~720-635 million years ago, suggest that post-Snowball fertilization of shallow continental margin seawater with phosphorus accelerated marine primary productivity, ocean-atmosphere oxygenation, and ultimately the rise of animals. However, the mechanisms that sourced and delivered bioavailable phosphate from land to the ocean are not fully understood. Here we demonstrate a causal relationship between clay mineral production by the melting Sturtian Snowball ice sheets and a short-lived increase in seawater phosphate bioavailability by at least 20-fold and oxygenation of an immediate post-Sturtian Snowball ocean margin. Bulk primary sediment inputs and inferred dissolved seawater phosphate dynamics point to a relatively low marine phosphate inventory that limited marine primary productivity and seawater oxygenation before the Sturtian glaciation, and again in the later stages of the succeeding interglacial greenhouse interval.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-44240-9

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