Oxygenation, Life, and the Planetary System during Earth's Middle History: An Overview.

ABSTRACT: The long history of life on Earth has unfolded as a cause-and-effect relationship with the evolving amount of oxygen (O₂) in the oceans and atmosphere. Oxygen deficiency characterized our planet's first 2 billion years, yet evidence for biological O₂ production and local enrichments in the surface ocean appear long before the first accumulations of O₂ in the atmosphere roughly 2.4 to 2.3 billion years ago. Much has been written about this fundamental transition and the related balance between biological O₂ production and sinks coupled to deep Earth processes that could buffer against the accumulation of biogenic O₂. However, the relationship between complex life (eukaryotes, including animals) and later oxygenation is less clear. Some

SUBMITTER: Lyons TW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8403206 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature