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 (O ₂) in the oceans and atmosphere. Oxygen deficiency characterized our planet's first 2 billion years, yet evidence for biological O ₂ production and local enrichments in the surface ocean appear long before the first accumulations of O ₂ 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 O ₂ production and sinks coupled to deep Earth processes that could buffer against the accumulation of biogenic O ₂. However, the relationship between complex life (eukaryotes, including animals) and later oxygenation is less clear. Some data suggest O ₂ was higher but still mostly low for another billion and a half years before increasing again around 800 million years ago, potentially setting a challenging course for complex life during its initial development and ecological expansion. The apparent rise in O ₂ around 800 million years ago is coincident with major developments in complex life. Multiple geochemical and paleontological records point to a major biogeochemical transition at that time, but whether rising and still dynamic biospheric oxygen triggered or merely followed from innovations in eukaryotic ecology, including the emergence of animals, is still debated. This paper focuses on the geochemical records of Earth's middle history, roughly 1.8 to 0.5 billion years ago, as a backdrop for exploring possible cause-and-effect relationships with biological evolution and the primary controls that may have set its pace, including solid Earth/tectonic processes, nutrient limitation, and their possible linkages. A richer mechanistic understanding of the interplay between coevolving life and Earth surface environments can provide a template for understanding and remotely searching for sustained habitability and even life on distant exoplanets.