Late Neoproterozoic seawater oxygenation by siliceous sponges

Michael Tatzel (), Friedhelm Blanckenburg, Marcus Oelze, Julien Bouchez and Dorothee Hippler
Additional contact information
Michael Tatzel: Section 3.3: Earth Surface Geochemistry Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Friedhelm Blanckenburg: Section 3.3: Earth Surface Geochemistry Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Marcus Oelze: Section 3.3: Earth Surface Geochemistry Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Julien Bouchez: Section 3.3: Earth Surface Geochemistry Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Dorothee Hippler: Institute of Applied Geosciences Technische Universität Berlin

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The Cambrian explosion, the rapid appearance of most animal phyla in the geological record, occurred concurrently with bottom seawater oxygenation. Whether this oxygenation event was triggered through enhanced nutrient supply and organic carbon burial forced by increased continental weathering, or by species engaging in ecosystem engineering, remains a fundamental yet unresolved question. Here we provide evidence for several simultaneous developments that took place over the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition: expansion of siliceous sponges, decrease of the dissolved organic carbon pool, enhanced organic carbon burial, increased phosphorus removal and seawater oxygenation. This evidence is based on silicon and carbon stable isotopes, Ge/Si ratios, REE-geochemistry and redox-sensitive elements in a chert-shale succession from the Yangtze Platform, China. According to this reconstruction, sponges have initiated seawater oxygenation by redistributing organic carbon oxidation through filtering suspended organic matter from seawater. The resulting increase in dissolved oxygen levels potentially triggered the diversification of eumetazoans.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00586-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-00586-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-00586-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().