Neoarchaean oxygen-based nitrogen cycle en route to the Great Oxidation Event

Alice Pellerin (), Christophe Thomazo, Magali Ader, Camille Rossignol, Eric Siciliano Rego, Vincent Busigny and Pascal Philippot
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Alice Pellerin: Université de Bourgogne
Christophe Thomazo: Université de Bourgogne
Magali Ader: Université Paris-Cité, CNRS
Camille Rossignol: Università degli studi di Cagliari
Eric Siciliano Rego: University of California, San Diego
Vincent Busigny: Université Paris-Cité, CNRS
Pascal Philippot: Université de Montpellier, CNRS

Nature, 2024, vol. 633, issue 8029, 365-370

Abstract: Abstract The nitrogen isotopic composition of sedimentary rocks (δ15N) can trace redox-dependent biological pathways and early Earth oxygenation1,2. However, there is no substantial change in the sedimentary δ15N record across the Great Oxidation Event about 2.45 billion years ago (Ga)3, a prominent redox change. This argues for a temporal decoupling between the emergence of the first oxygen-based oxidative pathways of the nitrogen cycle and the accumulation of atmospheric oxygen after 2.45 Ga (ref. 3). The transition between both states shows strongly positive δ15N values (10–50‰) in rocks deposited between 2.8 Ga and 2.6 Ga, but their origin and spatial extent remain uncertain4,5. Here we report strongly positive δ15N values (>30‰) in the 2.68-Gyr-old shallow to deep marine sedimentary deposit of the Serra Sul Formation6, Amazonian Craton, Brazil. Our findings are best explained by regionally variable extents of ammonium oxidation to N2 or N2O tied to a cryptic oxygen cycle, implying that oxygenic photosynthesis was operating at 2.7 Ga. Molecular oxygen production probably shifted the redox potential so that an intermediate N cycle based on ammonium oxidation developed before nitrate accumulation in surface waters. We propose to name this period, when strongly positive nitrogen isotopic compositions are superimposed on the usual range of Precambrian δ15N values, the Nitrogen Isotope Event. We suggest that it marks the earliest steps of the biogeochemical reorganizations that led to the Great Oxidation Event.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07842-x

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