Noah J Planavsky, Olivier J Rouxel, Andrey Bekker, Stefan V Lalonde, Kurt O Konhauser, Christopher T Reinhard, Timothy W Lyons

2010/10/28

Nature

467

7319

1088

Nature Publishing Group

Abstract Phosphorus is a biolimiting nutrient that has an important role in regulating the
burial of organic matter and the redox state of the ocean-atmosphere system. The ratio of
phosphorus to iron in iron-oxide-rich sedimentary rocks can be used to track dissolved
phosphate concentrations if the dissolved silica concentration of sea water is estimated.
Here we present iron and phosphorus concentration ratios from distal hydrothermal
sediments and iron formations through time to study the evolution of the marine phosphate ...