A possible nitrogen crisis for Archaean life due to reduced nitrogen fixation by lightning
Open accessAbstract
Nitrogen is an essential element for life and is often the limiting nutrient for terrestrial ecosystems. As most nitrogen is locked in the kinetically stable form, N2, in the Earth's atmosphere, processes that can fix N2 into biologically available forms-such as nitrate and ammonia-control the supply of nitrogen for organisms. On the early Earth, nitrogen is thought to have been fixed abiotically, as nitric oxide formed during lightning discharge. The advent of biological nitrogen fixation suggests that at some point the demand for fixed nitrogen exceeded the supply from abiotic sources, but the timing and causes of the onset of biological nitrogen fixation remain unclear. Here we report an experimental simulation of nitrogen fixation by lightning over a range of Hadean (4.5-3.8 Gyr ago) and Archaean (3.8-2.5 Gyr ago) atmospheric compositions, from predominantly carbon dioxide to predominantly dinitrogen (but always without oxygen). We infer that, as atmospheric CO2 decreased over the Archaean period, the production of nitric oxide from lightning discharge decreased by two orders of magnitude until about 2.2 Gyr. After this time, the rise in oxygen (or methane) concentrations probably initiated other abiotic sources of nitrogen. Although the temporary reduction in nitric oxide production may have lasted for only 100 Myr or less, this was potentially long enough to cause an ecological crisis that triggered the development of biological nitrogen fixation.
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Other nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2) would have been at trace levels because their lightning production in CO2-N2 air is inefficient.
“The other nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2) would have been at trace levels because their lightning production in CO2-N2 air is inefficient (160).”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [160]
The results (p. 4) report that lightning production of NO falls sharply in N₂-dominated mixtures, supporting the inefficiency claim only at low CO₂ levels. The same passage calls NO production efficient in CO₂-dominated mixtures. The paper does not establish trace atmospheric levels of NO or NO₂, or report a NO₂ yield. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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- Authors
- Navarro-González, R., McKay, C. P., & Mvondo, D. N.
- Affiliations
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX)
- Ames Research Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Navarro-González, Rafael
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2001-07
- Volume
- 412
- Issue
- 6842
- Pages
- 61-64
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W1632677476
- Cited by
- 272
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 5.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Origins and Evolution of Life
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution
- Keywords
- nitrogen fixation, lightning, nitric oxide, atmospheric CO2, early Earth, atmospheric oxygen rise, methane, origin of life, nitrogen crisis
- MeSH terms
- Atmosphere, Carbon Dioxide, Lightning, Nitrogen, Nitrogen Fixation, Oxygen, Time, Evolution, Chemical
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