The DOI matches its Crossref record; 90 of the 92 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 1 of the 56 sources its claims cite were checked for support.
Earliest land plants created modern levels of atmospheric oxygen
Open accessAbstract
Significance: The rise of atmospheric oxygen over Earth’s history has received much recent interdisciplinary attention. However, the puzzle of when and how atmospheric oxygen reached modern levels remains unresolved. Many recent studies have argued for a major oxygenation event—of uncertain cause—in the Neoproterozoic Era >541 Ma, enabling the rise of animals. Previous modelling work has predicted a late Paleozoic oxygen rise (<380 Ma) due to the rise of forests. Here we show that neither scenario is correct. Instead, the earliest plants, which colonized the land from 470 Ma onward, first increased atmospheric oxygen to present levels by 400 Ma, and this instigated fire-mediated feedbacks that have stabilized high oxygen levels ever since, shaping subsequent evolution.
Overview
AI snapshot
Written from the paper’s full text.
TL;DR
The paper argues that the earliest land plants, colonizing from ∼470 Ma, drove a mid-Paleozoic oxygenation event by increasing organic carbon burial, raising atmospheric O₂ to present levels by 420–400 Ma. It uses a revised COPSE biogeochemical model plus a trait-based cryptogamic vegetation model and bryophyte C/P data to reproduce a sustained +2‰ δ¹³C shift and O₂ rise consistent with charcoal and redox proxies.
Key findings
- Earliest nonvascular plants colonized land from ∼470–445 Ma; the model reproduces a sustained +2‰ δ¹³C increase by ∼445 Ma and an O₂ rise to present levels by 420–400 Ma, consistent with fossil charcoal indicating O₂ >15–17% by 420–400 Ma and Mo isotope evidence for deep-ocean oxygenation at 435–392 Ma.
- A trait-based ecophysiological model predicts cryptogamic vegetation cover at 445 Ma (CO₂ = 8 PAL, O₂ = 0.6 PAL) could achieve global NPP = 18.7 GtC·y⁻¹, ∼30% of today; COPSE with stronger Late Ordovician colonization predicts 30–40% of today’s NPP.
- Bryophyte C/P literature ranges from 800 to 4,300 (mean ∼1,900); assuming C/P = 2,000 vs 1,000 increases modeled organic carbon burial by ∼50% vs ∼25%, δ¹³C by +1.1‰ vs +0.5‰, and O₂ by +0.27 vs +0.11 PAL.
- Reproducing the observed +2‰ δ¹³C shift requires selective P weathering: a 50% increase in P weathering with C/P = 1,000 gives burial ∼95%, δ¹³C +2.2‰, and O₂ +0.74 PAL (to 0.97 PAL at 417 Ma); a 25% increase with C/P = 2,000 gives burial ∼90%, δ¹³C +2.1‰, and O₂ +0.67 PAL; P weathering spikes with C/P = 2,000 peak at O₂ +0.72 PAL at 407 Ma.
Methods
- Revised COPSE biogeochemical model for coupled C, O, N, P, and S cycles and δ¹³C, with biological forcing factors: evolution/colonization (E), weathering enhancement (W), selective phosphorus weathering (F), and terrestrial C/P burial ratio (CP); sensitivity analyses varied geologic forcing and initial conditions.
- Trait-based spatial model of cryptogamic vegetation (bryophyte and lichen) driven by Late Ordovician (445 Ma) climate simulations at different atmospheric CO₂ and O₂; assumed CO₂ = 8 PAL, O₂ = 0.6 PAL, and no ice sheet mask to predict global NPP.
- Data compilation included the early charcoal record, molybdenum isotope record, carbonate δ¹³C spline fit, and bryophyte C/P ratios; experimental P weathering calculation used granite with the moss *Physcomitrella patens*.
Limitations
- Stated: direct evidence linking a phase of land colonization to enhanced weathering and a positive δ¹³C excursion is only established for the Silurian–Devonian boundary; alternative hypotheses for short-lived positive δ¹³C excursions should also be considered.
- Stated: the model does not capture the earlier Late Ordovician–Early Silurian δ³⁴S rise from ∼25 to ∼30‰; other processes not yet included warrant future consideration, such as the effect of increasing atmospheric mass on climate and effects on δ⁷Li and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr.
- Evident: P weathering amplification estimates are dominated by the unmeasured P content of biomass, though the factor must be >5.3; the hypothesis requires early plants to have been much more productive and globally extensive than previously assumed.
Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
33 Not checked yet · 20 Own interpretation · 10 Own result · 7 No basis given · 2 Own method · 1 Supported so far
The sources with a verdict support this claim; the rest weren’t checked yet, have no full text we could read, or their verdicts aren’t rated yet.
In the paper
“The first appearance of fossil charcoal in the Late Silurian (11) and its ongoing occurrence through the Devonian (12) (Table S1), albeit rare and at low concentrations, indicates O2 > 15 -17% (vol) of the atmosphere (13) (or O2 > ∼ 0.7 PAL assuming a constant N2 reservoir) already by ∼ 420 -400 Ma.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [11] source
- Supportedcites [12] source
The Prídolí–Emsian section says that charcoal occurrences around 420–400 Ma indicate oxygen above present atmospheric levels, exceeding the cited 15–17% threshold. It also reports modeled values of 23%, 25%, and 22% at 420, 410, and 400 Ma, respectively. The paper does not extend that high-oxygen inference to the entire Devonian. (LLM, conf=0.90)
- Not checked yetcites [13] Belcher CM, McElwain JC (2008) Limits for combustion in low O2 redefine paleoatmospheric predictions for the Mesozoic. Science 321(5893):1197 -1200. source
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Data from modern bryophytes suggests this plentiful early plant material had a much higher molar C:P ratio ( ∼ 2,000) than marine biomass ( ∼ 100)”
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“The original baseline model (10) predicts early Paleozoic O2 ∼ 0.23 PAL at a reference time of 445 Ma, supported by an organic carbon burial flux of ∼ 4 × 10 12 mol · y -1 (about half the present-day value) with δ 13 C = 0.03 ‰ .”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [10] source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Combining these effects in a model of long-term biogeochemical cycling, we reproduce a sustained + 2 ‰ increase in the carbonate carbon isotope ( δ 13 C) record by ∼ 445 Ma”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks (δ13C).
- Rests on an assumption: On long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the molar ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“and predict a corresponding rise in O2 to present levels by 420 -400 Ma, consistent with geochemical data.”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: The major long-term source of oxygen to the atmosphere is the burial of organic carbon in sedimentary rocks.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We use a trait-based ecophysiological model to predict that cryptogamic vegetation cover could have achieved ∼ 30% of today ' s global terrestrial net primary productivity by ∼ 445 Ma.”
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“At atmospheric CO2 = 8 PAL, consistent with Late Ordovician glaciations (20), predicted global NPP is ∼ 19 GtC · y -1 (GtC, billion metric tons of carbon) (Fig. 2), ∼ 30% of today.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [20] Lenton TM, Crouch M, Johnson M, Pires N, Dolan L (2012) First plants cooled the Ordovician. Nat Geosci 5(2):86 -89. source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Alternatively, a series of P weathering spikes designed to reproduce the observed sequence of positive δ 13 C excursions (Fig. 1), combined with C/P = 2,000, produces a series of spikes in organic carbon burial and a peak increase of O2 of 0.72 PAL at 407 Ma (Fig. 3, black).”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: The major long-term source of oxygen to the atmosphere is the burial of organic carbon in sedimentary rocks.
- Rests on an assumption: Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks (δ13C).
- Rests on an assumption: On long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the molar ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried.
In the paper
“this gives a biotic P weathering amplification factor ∼ 24 (range 15 -43), whereas previously we suggested up to 60 (20).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [20] Lenton TM, Crouch M, Johnson M, Pires N, Dolan L (2012) First plants cooled the Ordovician. Nat Geosci 5(2):86 -89. source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, the P weathering amplification factor has to be > 5.3 (the ratio of dissolved phosphate entering solution in microcosms with moss to those without)”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- It may state two separate claims as one. 33
- Probably not a substantial claim. 14
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“If instead we assume that buried early plant matter had C/P = 2,000, then given their productivity, even with no effect on weathering fluxes, this increases global organic carbon burial by ∼ 50%, δ 13 C by 1.1 ‰ , and atmospheric O2 by 0.27 PAL (Fig. 3, cyan).”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The major long-term source of oxygen to the atmosphere is the burial of organic carbon in sedimentary rocks.
- Rests on an assumption: Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks (δ13C).
- Rests on an assumption: On long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the molar ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“In the original COPSE model (10), predicted NPP only reaches ∼ 5% of today ' s value in the Late Ordovician and Silurian, but when we assume a stronger Late Ordovician phase of land colonization by nonvascular plants (following ref. 20; SI Materials and Methods ), then COPSE predicts global NPP 30 -40% of today (Fig. 3 A ), consistent with the detailed spatial model.”
What the sources say
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“If we include in COPSE an effect of early plants on silicate weathering following ref. 20, assuming C/P = 1,000, this increases organic carbon burial by ∼ 35%, δ 13 C by 0.7 ‰ , and O2 by 0.18 PAL (Fig. 3, magenta).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [20] Lenton TM, Crouch M, Johnson M, Pires N, Dolan L (2012) First plants cooled the Ordovician. Nat Geosci 5(2):86 -89. source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The major long-term source of oxygen to the atmosphere is the burial of organic carbon in sedimentary rocks.
- Rests on an assumption: Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks (δ13C).
- Rests on an assumption: On long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the molar ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In COPSE, this advent of early land plants alone, with no assumed effect on weathering fluxes, and assumed C/P = 1,000, increases total organic carbon burial by ∼ 25%, δ 13 C by 0.5 ‰ , and atmospheric O2 by 0.11 PAL (Fig. 3, blue).”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The major long-term source of oxygen to the atmosphere is the burial of organic carbon in sedimentary rocks.
- Rests on an assumption: Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks (δ13C).
- Rests on an assumption: On long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the molar ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried.
In the paper
“However, we estimate much higher global NPP (Fig. 2) and weathering potential (32).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [32] Porada P, et al. (2016) High potential for weathering and climate effects of nonvascular vegetation in the Late Ordovician. Nat Commun , 10.1038/ncomms12113. source
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Predicted NPP is sensitive to variations in CO2 and climate (Fig. S1), ice sheet cover (Fig. S2), and O 2 (Table S2), but is consistently higher than the 4.3 GtC · y -1 (7% of today) estimated elsewhere (33).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [33] Edwards D, Cherns L, Raven JA (2015) Could land-based early photosynthesizing ecosystems have bioengineered the planet in mid-Palaeozoic times? Palaeontology 58(5): 803 -837. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The mean moss biomass in the biotic microcosms was 14.390 mg”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Assuming that early plants caused a sustained 50% increase in phosphorus weathering relative to bulk rock dissolution, with C/P = 1,000, increases total organic carbon burial by ∼ 95%, δ 13 C by 2.2 ‰ , and O2 by 0.74 PAL (to 0.97 PAL at 417 Ma; Fig. 3, yellow).”
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The major long-term source of oxygen to the atmosphere is the burial of organic carbon in sedimentary rocks.
- Rests on an assumption: Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks (δ13C).
- Rests on an assumption: On long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the molar ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Varying the uplift and degassing forcing of the model within plausible bounds only causes ± 0.08 PAL variation in O2 about the initial state (Fig. S4), although it does cause the effect of the same early plant forcing scenario to range over + 0.4 to 1.0 PAL O2 (Table S4).”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The relatively high global NPP results obtained are consistent with present-day cryptogamic covers providing ∼ 7% of global NPP, despite making up only 1% of terrestrial vegetation by mass (90) and being restricted to relatively resource-poor habitats, while also operating in an atmosphere with a low CO2/O2 ratio.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [90] Elbert W, et al. (2012) Contribution of cryptogamic covers to the global cycles of carbon and nitrogen. Nat Geosci 5(7):459 -462. source
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Our model makes additional predictions that can be tested against geochemical data -notably, it predicts a decline in pyrite sulfur burial and associated drop in δ 34 S and increases in seawater SO4 concentration and C/S burial ratio with the rise of the earliest plants (Fig. S5).”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Assuming that buried early plant matter had a higher C/P = 2,000 causes larger increases in total organic carbon burial ∼ 60%, δ 13 C + 1.2 ‰ , and atmospheric O2 + 0.35 PAL (Fig. 3, green).”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The major long-term source of oxygen to the atmosphere is the burial of organic carbon in sedimentary rocks.
- Rests on an assumption: Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks (δ13C).
- Rests on an assumption: On long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the molar ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried.
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“the amplification factors for Ca = 1.4 and Mg = 1.5 from granite”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Including an additional negative feedback on O2, from increased marine organic C/P burial ratios under anoxic waters (37), increases its initial early Paleozoic level to 0.54 PAL and reduces the effect of the same biological forcing scenarios on O2 by ∼ 10 -30%, giving a maximum increase of + 0.63 PAL (Table S5).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [37] Van Cappellen P, Ingall ED (1996) Redox stabilization of the atmosphere and oceans by phosphorus-limited marine productivity. Science 271:493 -496. source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Assuming a sustained 25% increase in phosphorus weathering relative to bulk rock and C/P = 2,000 increases organic carbon burial by ∼ 90%, δ 13 C by 2.1 ‰ , and O2 by 0.67 PAL (Fig. 3, red).”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The major long-term source of oxygen to the atmosphere is the burial of organic carbon in sedimentary rocks.
- Rests on an assumption: Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks (δ13C).
- Rests on an assumption: On long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the molar ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“which assuming 0.43 gC/g biomass and C/P = 2,000 (Table S3) suggests 0.26 μ mol P in biomass, or for C/P = 1,000 -4,000, 0.13 -0.52 μ mol P in biomass”
hedgedSingle case- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Subsequent experiments (21) with the modern liverwort Marchantia paleacea found a 2.5- to 7-fold amplification of Ca weathering and a 9- to 13-fold amplification of P weathering from basalt.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [21] Quirk J, et al. (2015) Constraining the role of early land plants in Palaeozoic weathering and global cooling. Proc Biol Sci , 10.1098/rspb.2015.1115.
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Furthermore, Early Devonian coaly shales indicate extensive peatlands 410 -400 Ma and have C/N of 44 -119 (28), comparable to that in modern peatlands where N/P and C/P ratios tend to increase with depth to C/P > 3,000 (34).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [28] Kennedy KL, et al. (2013) Lower Devonian coaly shales of northern New Brunswick, Canada: Plant accumulations in the early stages of Terrestrial colonization. J Sediment Res 83(12):1202 -1215. source
- Not checked yetcites [34] Wang M, Moore TR, Talbot J, Richard PJH (2014) The cascade of C:N:P stoichiometry in an ombrotrophic peatland: from plants to peat. Environ Res Lett 9(2):024003. source
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The evolution of land plants is the obvious candidate”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Here we show that neither scenario is correct.”
boosted- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“However, plants and their associated mycorrhizal fungi can increase phosphorus weathering (20 -22), and this could be sustained on longer timescales if they preferentially weather phosphorus relative to alkalinity.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [20] Lenton TM, Crouch M, Johnson M, Pires N, Dolan L (2012) First plants cooled the Ordovician. Nat Geosci 5(2):86 -89. source
- Not checked yetcites [21] Quirk J, et al. (2015) Constraining the role of early land plants in Palaeozoic weathering and global cooling. Proc Biol Sci , 10.1098/rspb.2015.1115.
- Not checked yetcites [22] Lenton TM, Watson AJ (2000b) Redfield revisited: 2. What regulates the oxygen content of the atmosphere? Global Biogeochem Cycles 14(1):249 -268. source
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The COPSE model we adapt here (10) predicts Early Paleozoic pO2 ∼ 0.2 -0.5 PAL consistent with redox proxy data but, like the other models (7, 8), it does not predict a rise in oxygen until the advent of forests starting ∼ 385 Ma, and continuing until ∼ 300 Ma, which is too late to explain marked changes in geochemical data that occur before ∼ 390 Ma (Fig. 1).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [10] source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Given that earlier plants developed peatlands (28), and had rock-weathering capabilities (20, 21), they could also have affected the global carbon cycle (18, 20).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [28] Kennedy KL, et al. (2013) Lower Devonian coaly shales of northern New Brunswick, Canada: Plant accumulations in the early stages of Terrestrial colonization. J Sediment Res 83(12):1202 -1215. source
- Not checked yetcites [20] Lenton TM, Crouch M, Johnson M, Pires N, Dolan L (2012) First plants cooled the Ordovician. Nat Geosci 5(2):86 -89. source
- Not checked yetcites [21] Quirk J, et al. (2015) Constraining the role of early land plants in Palaeozoic weathering and global cooling. Proc Biol Sci , 10.1098/rspb.2015.1115.
hedgedconditional- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Though there are many subsequent δ 13 C fluctuations, including drops back to 0 ‰ , for example, at ∼ 400 Ma, the long-term mean δ 13 C remains ∼ 2 ‰ throughout the rest of the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Early Cenozoic (17), indicating a sustained increase in global organic carbon burial.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [17] Saltzman MR, Thomas E (2012) Carbon isotope stratigraphy. The Geologic Time Scale , eds Gradstein FM, Schmitz JGOD, Ogg GM (Elsevier, Boston), pp 207 -232. source
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks (δ13C).
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The persistent oxygenation of the ocean and appearance of charcoal can be explained by a rise in atmospheric oxygen occurring by ∼ 400 Ma”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Land plants typically have a much higher molar C/P ratio ( ∼ 1,000) than marine organic matter ( ∼ 100) due to carbon-rich but phosphorus-poor structural compounds such as sporopollenin, lignin, and, in their fungal mycorrhizal symbionts, chitin; therefore, they can support an increased organic carbon burial flux for the same P weathering flux.”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: On long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the molar ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The P weathering flux is partly tied to bulk silicate weathering, for example, due to the dissolution of apatite inclusions in silicate rocks, and the silicate weathering flux of alkalinity is in turn set by negative feedback in the longterm carbon cycle, so is ultimately controlled by the degassing input of CO2 on timescales ≥ 1 My (7, 10).”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Instead, the earliest plants, which colonized the land from 470 Ma onward, first increased atmospheric oxygen to present levels by 400 Ma, and this instigated fire-mediated feedbacks that have stabilized high oxygen levels ever since, shaping subsequent evolution.”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“This ocean oxygenation is also supported by a Silurian increase in the C/S ratio of shales (15), and a shift in iron speciation data sometime during 435 -387 Ma (6).”
What the sources say
plaincorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The early charcoal record (Table S1) was compiled from the literature (11, 12, 28, 44 -72) using existing compilations (12, 44 -47) and checking them where possible against the original sources.”
What the sources say
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“This finding is broadly consistent with the sulfur isotope ( δ 34 S) record (38 -40), which shows a marked decline through the Silurian -Early Devonian from ∼ 30 to ∼ 18 ‰ , although available data also suggest an earlier Late Ordovician -Early Silurian rise from ∼ 25 to ∼ 30 ‰ , which the present model does not capture.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [38] Prokoph A, Shields GA, Veizer J (2008) Compilation and time-series analysis of a marine carbonate δ 18O, δ 13C, 87Sr/86Sr and δ 34S database through Earth history. Earth Sci Rev 87(3 -4):113 -133. source
- Not checked yetcites [39] Gill BC, Lyons TW, Saltzman MR (2007) Parallel, high-resolution carbon and sulfur isotope records of the evolving Paleozoic marine sulfur reservoir. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 256(3 -4):156 -173. source
- Not checked yetcites [40] Jones DS, Fike DA (2013) Dynamic sulfur and carbon cycling through the end-Ordovician extinction revealed by paired sulfate -pyrite δ 34S. Earth Planet Sci Lett 363: 144 -155. source
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Sensitivity analyses ( SI Materials and Methods ) indicate that our results are robust.”
hedged- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Uncertainties shown in Fig. 1 represent 2 SD of the mean (analytical precision) plus the propagated uncertainty from matching in-house reference materials to the universal standard NIST SRM 3136 where seawater display δ 98/95 Mo = 2.3 ‰ (75, 76).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [75] Goldberg T, et al. (2013) Resolution of inter-laboratory discrepancies in Mo isotope data: An intercalibration. J Anal At Spectrom 28(5):724 -735. source
- Not checked yetcites [76] Nägler TF, et al. (2014) Proposal for an international molybdenum isotope measurement standard and data representation. Geostand Geoanal Res 38(2):149 -151. source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The δ 13 C record suggests this increase in organic carbon burial was essentially permanent, producing a new dynamically stable state for atmospheric O2.”
hedgeddirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“new fire-mediated negative feedbacks on O2 were instigated that have played a key role in stabilizing atmospheric O2 concentration up to the present day (22, 43).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [22] Lenton TM, Watson AJ (2000b) Redfield revisited: 2. What regulates the oxygen content of the atmosphere? Global Biogeochem Cycles 14(1):249 -268. source
- Not checked yetcites [43] Kump LR (1988) Terrestrial feedback in atmospheric oxygen regulation by fire and phosphorus. Nature 335:152 -154. source
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The model is consistent with proxy reconstructions of seawater SO4 concentration, which suggest an Ordovician -Silurian rise from ∼ 6 to ∼ 10 mM (41), and with a Silurian increase in the molar C/S ratio of shales from ∼ 5 to ∼ 16 (15).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [41] Algeo TJ, Luo GM, Song HY, Lyons TW, Canfield DE (2015) Reconstruction of secular variation in seawater sulfate concentrations. Biogeosciences 12(7):2131 -2151. source
- Not checked yetcites [15] Berner RA, Raiswell R (1983) Burial of organic carbon and pyrite sulfur in sediments over phanerozoic time: A new theory. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 47(5):855 -862. source
hedgedcorrelational- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“We explored the sensitivity of predicted global NPP to variations in atmospheric CO2 and corresponding climate state (Fig. S1), to constraining vegetation cover with extensive Late Ordovician ice sheet cover (Fig. S2), and to varying O2 in combination with CO2 (Table S2).”
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In this new steady state, oxidative weathering was increased (becoming less sensitive to variations in O2)”
plaindirect- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“In our previously reported (20) weathering experiments with granite, the mean amounts of phosphate weathered into aqueous solution were as follows: control microcosms = 0.0137 μ mol P, biotic microcosms = 0.0726 μ mol P.”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [20] Lenton TM, Crouch M, Johnson M, Pires N, Dolan L (2012) First plants cooled the Ordovician. Nat Geosci 5(2):86 -89. source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“Then, in a sensitivity analysis, we considered uncertainty in geologic forcing (91), and alternative initial conditions (altering the feedback structure of the model).”
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites [91] Royer DL, Donnadieu Y, Park J, Kowalczyk J, Goddéris Y (2014) Error analysis of CO2 and O2 estimates from the long-term geochemical model GEOCARBSULF. Am J Sci 314(9):1259 -1283. source
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
The paper relies on this without support.
The major long-term source of oxygen to the atmosphere is the burial of organic carbon in sedimentary rocks.
“The major long-term source of oxygen to the atmosphere is the burial of organic carbon in sedimentary rocks (which represents the net flux of photosynthesis minus various pathways of respiration and oxidation).”
The paper relies on this without support.
Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks (δ13C).
“Increases in global organic carbon burial are recorded as positive shifts in the isotopic composition of carbonate rocks ( δ 13 C).”
The paper relies on this without support.
On long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the molar ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried.
“In simple terms, on long timescales, the global organic carbon burial flux is determined by the supply flux of the ultimate limiting nutrient phosphorus from weathering and the (molar) ratio of carbon-to-phosphorus in material that is buried”
The paper relies on this without support.
The C/P ratio of early land plants was similar to that of extant bryophytes.
“supported by the high C/P ratio of early land plant material”
“The C/P ratio of extant bryophytes (Table S3) was compiled from data in the literature (34, 80 -88).”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Sedimentary recycling of organic carbon during the Archaean and Proterozoic can thus help reconcile increases in oxygen, and presumed associated increases in biological productivity, with the lack of a secular trend in δ13Ccarb until the Phanerozoic17 (where there is a shift from 0 to 2‰ associated with the rise of land plants13).”
From Atmospheric oxygen regulation at low Proterozoic levels by incomplete oxidative weathering of sedimentary organic carbon (2017) · cites this paper as [13]
In the citing paper
“The rise of oxygen to present levels simply required an increase in organic carbon burial rate, which may have begun in the Neoproterozoic Era10, but in our model was not completed until the mid-Palaeozoic Era with the colonization of the land by plants and fungi, liberating nutrient phosphorus from rocks and producing high C/P material for burial1113.”
From Atmospheric oxygen regulation at low Proterozoic levels by incomplete oxidative weathering of sedimentary organic carbon (2017) · cites this paper as [13]
Citations
Cites
The rise of oxygen in Earth's early ocean and atmosphere
Lyons, T. W., Reinhard, C. T., & Planavsky, N. J. (2014) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature13068 · Cited by 2,810 · cited 2×
“Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111(2):734–739.”
BackgroundGEOCARBSULF: A combined model for Phanerozoic atmospheric O2 and CO2
Berner, R. A. (2006) · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta · doi:10.1016/j.gca.2005.11.032 · Cited by 1,120
Burial of organic carbon and pyrite sulfur in sediments over phanerozoic time: a new theory
Berner, R. A., & Raiswell, R. (1983) · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta · doi:10.1016/0016-7037(83)90151-5 · Cited by 1,044
Late-Neoproterozoic Deep-Ocean Oxygenation and the Rise of Animal Life
Canfield, D. E., Poulton, S. W., & Narbonne, G. M. (2007) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1135013 · Cited by 1,000 · cited 2×
“Ferruginous shales (77) are defined by the Fe speciation proxy when FeHR/FeT > 0.”
BackgroundContribution of cryptogamic covers to the global cycles of carbon and nitrogen
Elbert, W., Weber, B., Burrows, S., Steinkamp, J., Büdel, B., Andreae, M. O., & Pöschl, U. (2012) · Nature Geoscience · doi:10.1038/ngeo1486 · Cited by 957
A New Model for Atmospheric Oxygen Over Phanerozoic Time
Berner, R. A., & Canfield, D. E. (1989) · American Journal of Science · doi:10.2475/ajs.289.4.333 · Cited by 756
Scott, C., & Lyons, T. W. (2012) · Chemical Geology · doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2012.05.012 · Cited by 745 · cited 1×
“Euxinic shales are defined (78, 79) by theMo enrichment proxy whenMo > 25 ppm (white circles in Fig.”
MethodThe Neoproterozoic oxygenation event: Environmental perturbations and biogeochemical cycling
Och, L. M., & Shields-Zhou, G. A. (2012) · Earth-Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2011.09.004 · Cited by 646
Statistical analysis of iron geochemical data suggests limited late Proterozoic oxygenation
Sperling, E. A., Wolock, C. J., Morgan, A. S., Gill, B. C., Kunzmann, M., Halverson, G. P., Macdonald, F. A., Knoll, A. H., & Johnston, D. T. (2015) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature14589 · Cited by 637 · cited 3×
“This ocean oxygenation is also supported by a Silurian increase in the C/S ratio of shales (15), and a shift in iron speciation data sometime during 435–387 Ma (6).”
BackgroundCOPSE: A new model of biogeochemical cycling over Phanerozoic time
Bergman, N. M. (2004) · American Journal of Science · doi:10.2475/ajs.304.5.397 · Cited by 599
Research works printed but not linked: 4
- HD Pflug, KF Prössl, Palynostratigraphical and paleobotanical studies in the pilot hole of the German continental deep drilling programme results and implications. Sci Drill 2, 13–33 (1991).
- KAR Ghori Silurian-Devonian Petroleum Source-Rock Potential and Thermal History, Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia (Geological Survey of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, 1999).
- JK Michelsen, GK Khorasani, A regional study on coals from Svalbard; Organic facies, maturity and thermal history. Bull Soc Geol Fr 162, 385–397 (1991).
- M Fairon-Demaret, C Hartkopf-Fröder, Late Famennian plant mesofossils from the Refrath 1 Borehole (Bergisch Gladbach-Paffrath Syncline; Ardennes-Rhenish Massif, Germany). CFS Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 251, 89–121 (2004).
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The timescale of early land plant evolution
Morris, J. L., Puttick, M. N., Clark, J., Edwards, D., Kenrick, P., Pressel, S., Wellman, C. H., Yang, Z., Schneider, H., & Donoghue, P. C. J. (2018) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1719588115 · Cited by 926
“These dates are older than those used in the latest biogeochemical models (6, 8), and thus our results have implications for simulations of atmospheric chemistry and climate during the Paleozoic.”
Ancestral alliances: Plant mutualistic symbioses with fungi and bacteria
Martin, F. M., Uroz, S., & Barker, D. G. (2017) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aad4501 · Cited by 591
“colonization event in the Middle to Upper Ordovician (~443 to 470 Ma) (16, 17).”
BackgroundExtending full-plate tectonic models into deep time: Linking the Neoproterozoic and the PhanerozoicPreprint
Merdith, A., Williams, S. E., Collins, A. S., Tetley, M. G., Mulder, J. A., Blades, M., Young, A., Armistead, S., Cannon, J., Zahirovic, S., et al. (2020) · Earth-Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103477 · Cited by 544
COPSE reloaded: An improved model of biogeochemical cycling over Phanerozoic time
Lenton, T. M., Daines, S. J., & Mills, B. J. W. (2018) · Earth-Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.12.004 · Cited by 350
“This requires a substantial 1304 secular increase in organic carbon burial, which is here associated with the earliest, non-vascular 1305 land plants (Lenton et al., 2016) (unlike in the original COPSE model where it is associated with the 1306 later evolution of trees).”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialSelf-citationOxygenation history of the Neoproterozoic to early Phanerozoic and the rise of land plants
Wallace, M. W., Hood, A. V., Shuster, A., Greig, A., Planavsky, N. J., & Reed, C. P. (2017) · Earth and Planetary Science Letters · doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2017.02.046 · Cited by 299
Stepwise oxygenation of the Paleozoic atmosphere
Krause, A. J., Mills, B. J. W., Zhang, S., Planavsky, N. J., Lenton, T. M., & Poulton, S. W. (2018) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06383-y · Cited by 255
Self-citationLate inception of a resiliently oxygenated upper ocean
Lu, W., Ridgwell, A. J., Thomas, E., Hardisty, D. S., Luo, G., Algeo, T. J., Saltzman, M. R., Gill, B. C., Shen, Y., Ling, H.-F., et al. (2018) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aar5372 · Cited by 241
Self-citationA phenol-enriched cuticle is ancestral to lignin evolution in land plants
Renault, H., Alber, A., Horst, N. A., Lopes, A. B., Fich, E. A., Kriegshauser, L., Wiedemann, G., Ullmann, P., Herrgott, L., Erhardt, M., et al. (2017) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms14713 · Cited by 223
Regulation of Iron Homeostasis and Use in Chloroplasts
Kroh, G. E., & Pilon, M. (2020) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · doi:10.3390/ijms21093395 · Cited by 231
“However, modern oxygen levels are thought to be the result of land plant evolution 420–400 million years ago (Figure 1) [4].”
BackgroundCascading trend of Early Paleozoic marine radiations paused by Late Ordovician extinctions
Rasmussen, C. M. Ø., Kröger, B., Nielsen, M. L., & Colmenar, J. (2019) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1821123116 · Cited by 226
“Cooling climate, as expressed in temperature estimates (33, 34) and rising oxygen levels (35, 36) may have been key factors for the diversification during this time (see further discussion on abiotic drivers below).”
BackgroundOrdovician palaeogeography and climate change
Cocks, L. R. M., & Torsvik, T. H. (2020) · Gondwana Research · doi:10.1016/j.gr.2020.09.008 · Cited by 220
Lenton, T. M. (2020) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0123 · Cited by 221
Self-citationThe evolutionary emergence of land plants.
Donoghue, P., Harrison, C. J., Paps, J., & Schneider, H. (2021) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.07.038 · Cited by 153
Great moments in evolution: the conquest of land by plants
Rensing, S. A. (2018) · Current Opinion in Plant Biology · doi:10.1016/j.pbi.2018.02.006 · Cited by 184
“Early land plants then not only generated even larger amounts of oxygen, but they also significantly weathered the rock [4,5].”
Oxygenation as a driver of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event
Edwards, C. T., Saltzman, M. R., Royer, D. L., & Fike, D. A. (2017) · Nature Geoscience · doi:10.1038/s41561-017-0006-3 · Cited by 178
Self-citationDaines, S. J., Mills, B. J. W., & Lenton, T. M. (2017) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms14379 · Cited by 166
Self-citationClaypool continued: Extending the isotopic record of sedimentary sulfate
Crockford, P. W., Kunzmann, M., Bekker, A., Hayles, J. A., Bao, H., Halverson, G. P., Peng, Y., Bui, T. C. N., Cox, G. M., Gibson, T. M., et al. (2019) · Chemical Geology · doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2019.02.030 · Cited by 169
Dahl, T. W., & Arens, S. K. M. (2020) · Chemical Geology · doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2020.119665 · Cited by 160
“production and burial on Earth for a certain rate of P mining and weathering from the crust (Lenton et al., 2016).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationEukaryogenesis and oxygen in Earth history
Mills, D. B., Boyle, R. A., Daines, S. J., Sperling, E. A., Pisani, D., Donoghue, P. C. J., & Lenton, T. M. (2022) · Nature Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1038/s41559-022-01733-y · Cited by 156
“While oxygen became a permanent feature of the atmosphere during the GOE, modern p O 2 levels were most probably only attained around 420–400 Ma, during the Palaeozoic Era 129,130 (Fig.”
Self-citationOxygen-sensing mechanisms across eukaryotic kingdoms and their roles in complex multicellularity
Hammarlund, E. U., Flashman, E., Mohlin, S., & Licausi, F. (2020) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aba3512 · Cited by 120
“4 Ga ago (the Devonian Period) onward (13, 14, 24, 28, 30, 139).”
The impact of vegetation on meandering rivers
Ielpi, A., Lapôtre, M. G. A., Gibling, M. R., & Boyce, C. K. (2022) · Nature Reviews Earth & Environment · doi:10.1038/s43017-021-00249-6 · Cited by 131
Su, D., Yang, L., Shi, X., Ma, X., Zhou, X., Hedges, S. B., & Zhong, B. (2021) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/msab106 · Cited by 116
Reconciling proxy records and models of Earth's oxygenation during the Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic
Tostevin, R., & Mills, B. J. W. (2020) · Interface Focus · doi:10.1098/rsfs.2019.0137 · Cited by 128
Self-citationSelection for Gaia across Multiple Scales
Lenton, T. M., Daines, S. J., Dyke, J. G., Nicholson, A., Wilkinson, D. M., & Williams, H. T. P. (2018) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.tree.2018.05.006 · Cited by 117
Self-citationClimatic and hydrologic controls on upper Paleozoic bauxite deposits in South China
Yu, W., Algeo, T. J., Yan, J., Yang, J., Du, Y., Huang, X., & Weng, S. (2018) · Earth-Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2018.06.014 · Cited by 115
Field, K. J., & Pressel, S. (2018) · New Phytologist · doi:10.1111/nph.15158 · Cited by 112
Genomic and fossil windows into the secret lives of the most ancient fungi
Berbee, M. L., Strullu‐Derrien, C., Delaux, P., Strother, P. K., Kenrick, P., Selosse, M., & Taylor, J. W. (2020) · Nature Reviews Microbiology · doi:10.1038/s41579-020-0426-8 · Cited by 106
Kriegshauser, L., Knosp, S., Grienenberger, E., Tatsumi, K., Gütle, D. D., Sørensen, I., Herrgott, L., Zumsteg, J., Rose, J. K. C., Ralf Reski, A., et al. (2021) · The Plant Cell · doi:10.1093/plcell/koab044 · Cited by 110
The origin and early evolution of plants
Bowles, A. M. C., Williamson, C. J., Williams, T. A., Lenton, T. M., & Donoghue, P. C. J. (2022) · Trends in Plant Science · doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2022.09.009 · Cited by 95
Self-citationSpatial continuous integration of Phanerozoic global biogeochemistry and climate
Mills, B. J. W., Yannick Donnadieu, A., & Goddéris, Y. (2021) · Gondwana Research · doi:10.1016/j.gr.2021.02.011 · Cited by 93
“:P ratio and selective phosphorus weathering enhancement associated with early terrestrial nonvascular plants (Lenton et al., 2016).”
BackgroundMethodSelf-citationA theory of atmospheric oxygen
Laakso, T. A., & Schrag, D. P. (2017) · Geobiology · doi:10.1111/gbi.12230 · Cited by 93
The History of Ocean Oxygenation
Reinhard, C. T., & Planavsky, N. J. (2022) · Annual Review of Marine Science · doi:10.1146/annurev-marine-031721-104005 · Cited by 91
“…Earth’s crust and increasing the globally integrated rate of carbon burial per unit phosphorus—drove a secular increase and longterm stabilization of atmospheric pO2 at roughly modern values (Kump 1988, Lenton et al. 2016), which would have driven more pervasive oxygenation of the ocean interior.”
BackgroundEarly Cambrian oxygen minimum zone-like conditions at Chengjiang
Hammarlund, E. U., Gaines, R. R., Prokopenko, M. G., Qi, C., Hou, X.-G., & Canfield, D. E. (2017) · Earth and Planetary Science Letters · doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2017.06.054 · Cited by 92
Tectonic controls on the long-term carbon isotope mass balance
Shields, G. A., & Mills, B. J. W. (2017) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1614506114 · Cited by 88
“The longer Permo-Carboniferous glaciations also occurred at a time of generally high δ(13)C, and are thus consistent with an elevated organic burial flux, perhaps associated with the evolution of a modern land biota (32).”
BackgroundSelf-citationMatworld – the biogeochemical effects of early life on land
Lenton, T. M., & Daines, S. J. (2016) · New Phytologist · doi:10.1111/nph.14338 · Cited by 85
Self-citationA nutrient control on expanded anoxia and global cooling during the Late Ordovician mass extinction
Qiu, Z., Zou, C., Mills, B. J. W., Xiong, Y., Tao, H., Lu, B., Liu, H., Xiao, W., & Poulton, S. W. (2022) · Communications Earth & Environment · doi:10.1038/s43247-022-00412-x · Cited by 90
Self-citationSofo, A., Zanella, A., & Ponge, J. (2021) · Soil Use and Management · doi:10.1111/sum.12702 · Cited by 93
“And we know how much the climate itself is connected to the living beings of our planet, which have modified it to make it suitable for their development (Lenton et al., 2016).”
BackgroundA long-term record of early to mid-Paleozoic marine redox change
Sperling, E. A., Melchin, M. J., Fraser, T., Stockey, R. G., Farrell, U. C., Bhajan, L., Brunoir, T. N., Cole, D. B., Gill, B. C., Lenz, A., et al. (2021) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.abf4382 · Cited by 85
“Changes in P contents during this time could also be linked to greater input of terrestrial derived, phosphorus-poor organic matter or increased solubilization of detrital phosphorus by early land plants [e.g., ( 44 )].”
Early Palaeozoic ocean anoxia and global warming driven by the evolution of shallow burrowing
van de Velde, S., Mills, B. J. W., Meysman, F. J. R., Lenton, T. M., & Poulton, S. W. (2018) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04973-4 · Cited by 87
Self-citationNitrogen isotope constraints on the early Ediacaran ocean redox structure
Wang, X., Jiang, G., Shi, X., Peng, Y., & Morales, D. C. (2018) · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta · doi:10.1016/j.gca.2018.08.034 · Cited by 84
The Anthropocene condition: evolving through social–ecological transformations
Ellis, E. C. (2023) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2022.0255 · Cited by 100
Arribas, P., Andújar, C., MORAZA, M. L., Linard, B., Emerson, B. C., & Vogler, A. P. (2019) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/msz255 · Cited by 82
“…gives weight to the hypothesis that mites, possibly together with springtails, were among the few macroscopic animal groups inhabiting the soil matrix during the Ordovician-Silurian, and underwent the process of land colonization in synchrony with early terrestrial plants (Lenton et al. 2016).”
Feedbacks in ecology and evolution
Pausas, J. G., & Bond, W. J. (2022) · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1016/j.tree.2022.03.008 · Cited by 83
“All this led to different states of O2 concentration across Earth history [53,56] with important implications for plant and animal evolution.”
BackgroundEnvironmental gradients reveal stress hubs pre-dating plant terrestrialization
Dadras, A., Fürst‐Jansen, J. M. R., Darienko, T., Krone, D., Scholz, P., Sun, S., Herrfurth, C., Rieseberg, T. P., Irisarri, I., Steinkamp, R., et al. (2023) · Nature Plants · doi:10.1038/s41477-023-01491-0 · Cited by 86
“thaliana: SRR2302908 to SRR2302919, ERR754084, ERR754066, ERR754077, ERR754069, ERR754087, ERR754064, ERR754059, SRR7659142, SRR7659143, SRR7659144, SRR7659145 to SRR7659150, SRR5197904, to SRR5197909; (2) M.”
BackgroundInfluentialWatson, A. J., Lenton, T. M., & Mills, B. J. W. (2017) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences · doi:10.1098/rsta.2016.0318 · Cited by 83
Self-citationLand plant evolution decreased, rather than increased, weathering rates
D’Antonio, M. P., Ibarra, D. E., & Boyce, C. K. (2019) · Geology · doi:10.1130/g46776.1 · Cited by 77
The geologic history of primary productivity
Crockford, P. W., On, Y. M. B., Ward, L. M., Milo, R., & Halevy, I. (2023) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.040 · Cited by 82
Biogeochemical Transformations in the History of the Ocean
Lenton, T. M., & Daines, S. J. (2016) · Annual Review of Marine Science · doi:10.1146/annurev-marine-010816-060521 · Cited by 80
Self-citationStolper, D. A., & Bucholz, C. E. (2019) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1821847116 · Cited by 78
No support for the emergence of lichens prior to the evolution of vascular plants
Nelsen, M. P., Lücking, R., Boyce, C. K., Lumbsch, H. T., & Ree, R. H. (2019) · Geobiology · doi:10.1111/gbi.12369 · Cited by 75
“…of oxygen, deposition of coal, and major glacia‐ tions (Kennedy, Droser, Mayer, Pevear, & Mrofka, 2006; Knauth & Kennedy, 2009; Lenton, Crouch, Johnson, Pires, & Dolan, 2012; Lenton et al., 2016; Nelsen, DiMichele, Peters, & Boyce, 2016; Pagani, Caldeira, Berner, & Beerling, 2009; Robinson, 1990).”
The Evolution Pathway of Ammonia-Oxidizing Archaea Shaped by Major Geological Events
Yang, Y., Zhang, C., Lenton, T. M., Yan, X., Zhu, M., Zhou, M., Tao, J., Phelps, T. J., & Cao, Z. (2021) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/msab129 · Cited by 66
Self-citationExtreme variability in atmospheric oxygen levels in the late Precambrian
Krause, A. J., Mills, B. J. W., Merdith, A. S., Lenton, T. M., & Poulton, S. W. (2022) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.abm8191 · Cited by 72
Self-citationThe small subunit of Rubisco and its potential as an engineering target
Mao, Y., Catherall, E., Díaz-Ramos, L. A., Greiff, G. R. L., Azinas, S., Gunn, L. H., & McCormick, A. J. (2022) · Journal of Experimental Botany · doi:10.1093/jxb/erac309 · Cited by 70
“…M-type RbcS. Pottier et al. (2018) suggested this may be due to species in early land plant lineages having emerged before the increase of atmospheric O2 to modern levels (Lenton et al., 2016), when Rubisco would have been adapted to a higher CO2 to O2 ratio (i.e. a higher kcat c and lower Sc/o).”
BackgroundA tectonically driven Ediacaran oxygenation event
Williams, J., Mills, B. J. W., & Lenton, T. M. (2019) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10286-x · Cited by 70
Self-citationLate Neoproterozoic seawater oxygenation by siliceous sponges
Tatzel, M., von Blanckenburg, F., Oelze, M., Bouchez, J., & Hippler, D. (2017) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-017-00586-5 · Cited by 68
Chen, Y., Diamond, C., Stüeken, E. E., Cai, C., Gill, B. C., Zhang, F., Bates, S. M., Chu, X., Ding, Y., & Lyons, T. W. (2019) · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta · doi:10.1016/j.gca.2019.05.017 · Cited by 68
“Widespread ventilation of the deep ocean may not have occurred until later in the Paleozoic with the ecological expansion of land plants (Dahl et al., 2010; Saltzman et al., 2011; Sperling et al., 2015; Lenton et al., 2016; Wallace et al., 2017).”
BackgroundDahl, T. W., Hammarlund, E. U., Rasmussen, C. M. Ø., Bond, D. P. G., & Canfield, D. E. (2021) · Earth-Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103748 · Cited by 69
“Increased organic carbon burial fluxes should also simultaneously increase atmospheric O 2 , as suggested at this time (Adiatma et al., 2019; Edwards et al., 2017; Lenton et al., 2016).”
BackgroundSelf-citationEnergy metabolism in anaerobic eukaryotes and Earth's late oxygenation
Zimorski, V., Mentel, M., Tielens, A. G. M., & Martin, W. F. (2019) · Free Radical Biology and Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2019.03.030 · Cited by 69
“The late rise in oxygen content leading to present atmospheric level is currently attributed to the emergence of land plants [5,6] stemming from the deposition of cellulose on land by the terrestrial descendants of streptophytes [9].”
BackgroundLong-term evolution of terrestrial weathering and its link to Earth's oxygenation
Bayon, G., Bindeman, I. N., Trinquier, A., Retallack, G. J., & Bekker, A. (2022) · Earth and Planetary Science Letters · doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117490 · Cited by 71
“Similarly, the Devonian rise of land plants and its impact on the export of P to surface environments, via enhanced chemical weathering, might have caused the mid-Paleozoic Oxygenation Event (Lenton et al., 2016).”
BackgroundChen, K., Liao, H., Arnold, A. E., et al. (2018) · New Phytologist · doi:10.1111/nph.15092 · Cited by 63
Adaptive evolution of the enigmatic Takakia now facing climate change in Tibet
Hu, R., Li, X., Hu, Y., Zhang, R., Lv, Q., Zhang, M., Sheng, X., Zhao, F., Chen, Z., Ding, Y., et al. (2023) · Cell · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2023.07.003 · Cited by 55
Was climatic cooling during the earliest Carboniferous driven by expansion of seed plants?
Chen, B., Chen, J., Qie, W., Huang, P., He, T., Joachimski, M. M., Regelous, M., von Strandmann, P. A. E. P., Liu, J., Wang, X., et al. (2021) · Earth and Planetary Science Letters · doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2021.116953 · Cited by 62
Humboldt Review: Photorespiration – Rubisco's repair crew
Bauwe, H. (2022) · Journal of Plant Physiology · doi:10.1016/j.jplph.2022.153899 · Cited by 60
Evolution of coumaroyl conjugate 3‐hydroxylases in land plants: lignin biosynthesis and defense
Alber, A., Renault, H., Lopes, A. B., Bassard, J.-É., Liu, Z., Ullmann, P., Lesot, A., Bihel, F. J. ‐., Schmitt, M., Werck‐Reichhart, D., et al. (2019) · The Plant Journal · doi:10.1111/tpj.14373 · Cited by 59
Ediacarans, Protolichens, and Lichen-Derived Penicillium
Lücking, R., & Nelsen, M. P. (2018) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-813012-4.00023-1 · Cited by 57
The climatic significance of Late Ordovician‐early Silurian black shales
Pohl, A., Yannick Donnadieu, A., Hir, G. L., & Ferreira, D. (2017) · Paleoceanography · doi:10.1002/2016pa003064 · Cited by 56
“Biogeochemical models and inversion methods notably indicate that the p O 2 was significantly lower in the Ordovician, probably between 0.2 and 0.8 times the present-day levels [ Bergman et al. , 2004; Berner , 2006; Algeo and Ingall , 2007; Berner , 2009; Lenton et al. , 2016].”
BackgroundInfluentialLaakso, T. A., & Schrag, D. P. (2018) · Global Biogeochemical Cycles · doi:10.1002/2017gb005832 · Cited by 55
Frýda, J., Lehnert, O., Joachimski, M. M., Männik, P., Kubajko, M., Mergl, M., Farkaš, J., & Frýdová, B. (2021) · Earth-Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103652 · Cited by 53
The Oxidative Paradox in Low Oxygen Stress in Plants
Pucciariello, C., & Pierdomenico Perata, A. (2021) · Antioxidants · doi:10.3390/antiox10020332 · Cited by 58
“Land plants evolved from algae around 500 million years ago [2], and the O2 content available today in the atmosphere is currently attributed to this event [3].”
BackgroundEdwards, C. T. (2018) · Palaeoworld · doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2018.08.006 · Cited by 53
Nitrogenase Inhibition Limited Oxygenation of Earth’s Proterozoic Atmosphere
Allen, J. F., Thake, B., & Martin, W. F. (2019) · Trends in Plant Science · doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2019.07.007 · Cited by 51
The future lifespan of Earth’s oxygenated atmosphere
Ozaki, K., & Reinhard, C. T. (2021) · Nature Geoscience · doi:10.1038/s41561-021-00693-5 · Cited by 56
Self-citationChen, B., Ma, X., Mills, B. J. W., Qie, W., Joachimski, M. M., Shen, S., Wang, C., Xu, H., & Wang, X. (2021) · Earth-Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2021.103814 · Cited by 54
Self-citationEsposti, M. D., Mentel, M., Martin, W. F., & Sousa, F. L. (2019) · Frontiers in Microbiology · doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.00499 · Cited by 50
“As a result, both eukaryotes and alphaproteobacteria existed in anoxic or low oxygen environments (Figure 1) for over a billion years before the critical rise of marine O2 at 580 million years ago, and the terminal rise of atmospheric O2 at 420 MY ago (Lenton et al., 2016).”
BackgroundSproson, A. D., von Strandmann, P. A. E. P., Selby, D. S., Jarochowska, E., Frýda, J., Hladil, J., Loydell, D. K., Slavík, L., Calner, M., Maier, G., et al. (2021) · Earth and Planetary Science Letters · doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2021.117260 · Cited by 49
“Conceivably, expansions in plant cover and associated increases in global weathering rates occurred during the Silurian (Lenton et al., 2016), albeit of uncertain magnitude.”
InfluentialSelf-citationRiding, R., Liang, L., Lee, J., & Virgone, A. (2018) · Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology · doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.10.006 · Cited by 47
“Oxygen levels are thought to have risen significantly in the Neoproterozoic, ~800Ma (Och and Shields-Zhou, 2012; Lenton et al., 2014; Lyons et al., 2014), but then more slowly during the early Paleozoic (Dahl et al., 2010; Lenton et al., 2016).”
BackgroundThe oxygen cycle and a habitable Earth
Huang, J., Liu, X., Shen, S., Shen, S., Hou, Z., Li, C., Li, C., Yao, L., & Huang, J. (2021) · Science China Earth Sciences · doi:10.1007/s11430-020-9747-1 · Cited by 53
Lu, M., Ikejiri, T., & Lu, Y. (2021) · Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology · doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110321 · Cited by 45
Overcoming adversity through diversity: aquatic carbon concentrating mechanisms
Griffiths, H., Meyer, M. T., & Rickaby, R. E. M. (2017) · Journal of Experimental Botany · doi:10.1093/jxb/erx278 · Cited by 45
“5%), around 450 Ma (Lenton et al., 2016), requires an atmospheric concentration of 10 PAL CO2 (3500 ppm) to provide equimolar dissolved CO2 and O2 in marine waters, a CO2 level which is well within range of coincident atmospheric estimates (Fig.”
BackgroundInfluentialWeathering, alteration and reconstructing Earth's oxygenation
Planavsky, N. J., Robbins, L. J., Kamber, B. S., & Schoenberg, R. (2020) · Interface Focus · doi:10.1098/rsfs.2019.0140 · Cited by 45
“Lastly, there are reports of a Palaeozoic rise in pO2 associated with the appearance and diversification of land plants [10,11].”
BackgroundHearing, T. W. W., Pohl, A., Williams, M., Yannick Donnadieu, A., Harvey, T. H. P., Scotese, C. R., Sepulchre, P., Franc, A., & Vandenbroucke, T. R. A. (2021) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-24141-5 · Cited by 45
A diverse Ediacara assemblage survived under low-oxygen conditions
Cherry, L. B., Gilleaudeau, G. J., Grazhdankin, D. V., Romaniello, S. J., Martin, A. J., & Kaufman, A. J. (2022) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-022-35012-y · Cited by 39
Cryogenian Origins of Multicellularity in Archaeplastida
Bowles, A. M. C., Williamson, C. J., Williams, T. A., & Donoghue, P. C. J. (2024) · Genome Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/gbe/evae026 · Cited by 39
“…early evolution of the superkingdom Archaeplastida, from the first photosynthetic eukaryotes to the earliest land plants, transformed the biosphere (Lenton et al. 2016; Bengtson et al. 2017; One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative 2019; Burki et al. 2020; Delaux and Schornack 2021; Schön et…”
BackgroundElrick, M., Gilleaudeau, G. J., Romaniello, S. J., Algeo, T. J., Morford, J. L., Sabbatino, M., Goepfert, T. J., Cleal, C. J., Cascales‐Miñana, B., & Chernyavskiy, P. (2022) · Earth and Planetary Science Letters · doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117410 · Cited by 42
Silurian wildfire proxies and atmospheric oxygen
Glasspool, I. J., & Gastaldo, R. A. (2022) · Geology · doi:10.1130/g50193.1 · Cited by 41
Rubinstein, C. V., & Vajda, V. (2019) · GFF · doi:10.1080/11035897.2019.1636860 · Cited by 35
“Empirical studies have also shown that the appearance of land plants boosted CO2 drawdown and potentially contributed to Late Ordovician cooling and a rise in atmospheric oxygen pressure (pO2) (Lenton et al. 2012, 2016).”
BackgroundPacing of the latest Ordovician and Silurian carbon cycle by a ~4.5 Myr orbital cycle
Sproson, A. D. (2019) · Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology · doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.109543 · Cited by 36
Dzombak, R., & Sheldon, N. D. (2020) · Soil Systems · doi:10.3390/soilsystems4040073 · Cited by 36
“Researchers have argued for both an increase [12,56,62,63] and decrease [13,15] in P fluxes to the oceans following the spread of land plants.”
BackgroundBelcher, C. M., Mills, B. J. W., Vitali, R., Baker, S. J., Lenton, T. M., & Watson, A. J. (2021) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20772-2 · Cited by 39
Self-citationPhysiology, anaerobes, and the origin of mitosing cells 50 years on
Martin, W. F. (2017) · Journal of Theoretical Biology · doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2017.01.004 · Cited by 38
“…to widespread anoxia until about 580 million years ago ( Lyons et al., 2014; Reinhard et al., 2016 ) with more recent evidence indicating that the rise to roughly our current atmospheric levels of O 2 were generated by early land plants only some 400 million years ago ( Lenton et al., 2016 ).”
BackgroundSpiridonov, A., Stankevič, R., Gečas, T., Brazauskas, A., Kaminskas, D., Musteikis, P., Kaveckas, T., Meidla, T., Bičkauskas, G., Ainsaar, L., et al. (2020) · Gondwana Research · doi:10.1016/j.gr.2020.05.015 · Cited by 34
Managing enzyme promiscuity in plant specialized metabolism: A lesson from flavonoid biosynthesis
Waki, T., Takahashi, S., & Nakayama, T. (2020) · BioEssays · doi:10.1002/bies.202000164 · Cited by 30
“[32] By 420–400 million years ago, the level of atmospheric oxygen was presumably similar to present levels.[33,34] Unlike algae, the survival of very early land plants was threatened by various”
BackgroundDeng, C., Geng, H., Xiao, T., et al. (2022) · Precambrian Research · doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2022.106646 · Cited by 32
Spiridonov, A., Stankevič, R., Gečas, T., et al. (2017) · Gondwana Research · doi:10.1016/j.gr.2017.08.006 · Cited by 31
“It is nowwidely recognized that the Silurian Periodwas a time of a remarkable evolutionary turnover, extinction and biotic radiation events, accompanied by shifts in biogeochemical cycles of carbon and other nutrients (Cooper et al., 2014; Crampton et al., 2016; Lenton et al., 2016).”
BackgroundMercury isotopes show vascular plants had colonized land extensively by the early Silurian
Yuan, W., Liu, M., Chen, D., Xing, Y., Spicer, R. A., Chen, J., Them, T. R., Wang, X., Li, S., Guo, C., et al. (2023) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.ade9510 · Cited by 30
Luo, K., Liu, Q., Alhotan, A., et al. (2024) · Dental Materials · doi:10.1016/j.dental.2023.12.017 · Cited by 30
Time-resolved oxidative signal convergence across the algae–embryophyte divide
Rieseberg, T. P., Dadras, A., Darienko, T., Post, S., Herrfurth, C., Fürst‐Jansen, J. M. R., Hohnhorst, N., Petroll, R., Rensing, S. A., Pröschold, T., et al. (2025) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-025-56939-y · Cited by 42
Porada, P., Tamm, A., Raggio, J., Cheng, Y., Kleidon, A., Pöschl, U., & Weber, B. (2019) · Biogeosciences · doi:10.5194/bg-16-2003-2019 · Cited by 36
Self-citation500 million years of charted territory: functional ecological traits in bryophytes
Stanton, D. E., & Coe, K. K. (2021) · Bryophyte Diversity and Evolution · doi:10.11646/bde.43.1.17 · Cited by 30
“…are fundamental to primary succession in many modern contexts (Mueller-Dombois & boehmer 2013, Arróniz-Crespo et al. 2014, Vilmundardóttir et al. 2018). because of their deep geological history, early terrestrial environments are also likely to have been shaped by bryophytes (Lenton et al. 2016).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Lenton, T. M., Dahl, T. W., Daines, S. J., Mills, B. J. W., Ozaki, K., Saltzman, M. R., & Porada, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Exeter (GB)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- University of Leeds (GB)
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Stockholm University (SE)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2016-08-15
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 35
- Pages
- 9704-9709
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC5024600
- OpenAlex
- W2508469640
- Cited by
- 343
- References
- 92
- Citations by year
- 2026: 25 · 2025: 33 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 48 · 2022: 47 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 24.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (acceptedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- Tokyo Tech Research Repository (Tokyo Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2013-106)
- Natural Environment Research Council (NE/I005978/2)
- Royal Society (Wolfson Research Merit Award)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geological and Geochemical Analysis
- Keywords
- atmospheric oxygenation, early land plants, organic carbon burial, bryophytes, terrestrial net primary productivity, C:P ratio, carbonate carbon isotopes, biogeochemical cycles, fire feedbacks, redox proxies
- MeSH terms
- Origin of Life, Atmosphere, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Isotopes, Biological Evolution, Oceans and Seas, Oxidation-Reduction, Oxygen, Phosphorus, Photosynthesis, Soil, Models, Statistical, Biomass, Earth, Planet, Geologic Sediments, Embryophyta, History, Ancient
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-08, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).
A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-08 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).
Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
