CAREER: Understanding biosphere-geosphere coevolution through carbonate-associated phosphate, community archives, and open-access education in rural schools

职业：通过碳酸盐相关磷酸盐、社区档案和农村学校的开放教育了解生物圈-地圈协同进化

• 批准号: 2338055
• 负责人: Miquela Ingalls
• 金额: $ 97.52万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-08-01 至 2029-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2338055&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Understanding; biosphere; geosphere; coevolution

Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for life. Today, phosphorus exists in extremely low abundance in the oceans limiting the productivity of the biosphere. The majority of phosphorus is derived from weathering of phosphate minerals from continents. However, for the first one to two billion years of Earth history, there were no continents to weather. Shortly after the first continents emerged above sea level (~3.2 to 2.6 billion years ago, Ga), microbes evolved the ability to perform oxygenic photosynthesis, which led to an oxygen-rich atmosphere and massive increase in primary productivity. Was the oxygenation of the oceans and atmosphere directly related to weathering of Earth’s first continents? This study will develop a record of the concentration of phosphorus in ancient oceans ~2 to 0.5 Ga to examine if the evolution of marine microorganisms was linked to weathering of early continents when the Earth was covered in ice. Ultimately, phosphorus abundance may have enabled the evolution of aerobic and multicellular organisms. The research will be integrated into new Earth sciences curricula developed with local high school teachers for neighboring rural districts. The project will develop open-access classroom and field-based learning modules and virtual field trips that connect students to the Cambrian explosion—the evolution of macroscopic animals—in the Pennsylvania landscape. The efficacy of the new curricula will be assessed through serial knowledge assessments implemented before and after exposure and “knowledge boosts” in subsequent years. Mid-Atlantic high school teachers will be trained in various resources to be implemented in their classrooms.Microbes have been intimately linked to carbonate minerals and the chemical evolution of Earth’s surface since life began. The metabolic innovation of oxygenic phototrophy 2 billion years ago contributed to the rise of oxygen, increased global primary productivity, and permanently changed biogeochemical cycles. However, little is known about why microbes evolved the ability to photosynthesize relatively late in the history of life, and what controlled the pace of subsequent microbial evolution. The primary goal of this CAREER award is an assessment of phosphate availability—an essential nutrient for all life—in the environments that host textural and geochemical evidence for primitive microbes and emergent metabolisms. Was the reduced productivity of the Mesoproterozoic a symptom of a phosphate reservoir depleted by oxygenic phototrophs? Was the evolution of crown group eukaryotes and metazoans fertilized by weathering-derived phosphate from Neoproterozoic global glaciations and the breakup of supercontinents? This project tests the hypothesis that enhanced phosphate availability was essential to the evolution of eukaryotes and metazoans by reconstructing seawater [P] via carbonate-associated phosphate (CAP) on existing Precambrian sample sets within the context of Proterozoic global glaciations, tectonics, and existing temporal and diagenetic frameworks. The research will improve our understanding of CAP and its utility for geo- and astrobiology by (1) analyzing CAP in the same Precambrian samples that have a wealth of existing diagenetic and geochemical data, and (2) performing growth experiments to develop mineral-specific CAP-[P]seawater calibrations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

磷是生命所必需的营养素。今天，海洋中的磷含量极低，限制了生物圈的生产力。大部分磷来自大陆磷酸盐矿物的风化。然而，在地球历史的最初10亿到20亿年里，没有大陆可以风化。在第一个大陆出现在海平面以上后不久（约32亿至26亿年前，Ga），微生物进化出进行含氧光合作用的能力，这导致了富氧大气和初级生产力的大幅增加。海洋和大气的氧化作用与地球上第一个大陆的风化直接相关吗？这项研究将记录古海洋中的磷浓度~2至0.5 Ga，以研究海洋微生物的进化是否与地球被冰覆盖时早期大陆的风化有关。最终，丰富的磷可能使有氧和多细胞生物的进化成为可能。这项研究将被纳入与当地高中教师为邻近农村地区开发的新的地球科学课程。该项目将开发开放式课堂和基于实地的学习模块和虚拟实地考察，将学生与宾夕法尼亚州景观中的寒武纪爆炸-宏观动物的进化联系起来。将通过在接触前后进行的系列知识评估以及随后几年的“知识提升”来评估新课程的效力。大西洋中部的高中教师将接受各种资源的培训，这些资源将在他们的课堂上实施。微生物与碳酸盐矿物和地球表面的化学演变密切相关，因为生命开始。20亿年前，产氧光养的代谢创新促进了氧气的增加，提高了全球初级生产力，并永久地改变了地球化学循环。然而，对于为什么微生物在生命史上相对较晚的时候才进化出光合作用的能力，以及是什么控制了随后微生物进化的步伐，人们知之甚少。这个CAREER奖的主要目标是评估磷酸盐的可用性-所有生命的必需营养素-在环境中，原始微生物和紧急代谢的纹理和地球化学证据。中元古界生产力的降低是磷酸盐储层被产氧光合生物耗尽的症状吗？冠群真核生物和后生动物的进化是否是由新元古代全球冰川和超大陆分裂产生的风化磷酸盐受精的？该项目测试的假设，即增强磷酸盐的可用性是必不可少的真核生物和后生动物的进化，通过重建海水[P]通过碳酸盐相关的磷酸盐（CAP）在现有的前寒武纪样品集的背景下，元古代全球冰川，构造，现有的时间和成岩框架。通过（1）分析具有丰富成岩和地球化学数据的前寒武纪样品中的CAP，和（2）进行生长实验以开发矿物特异性CAP-[P]该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识产权进行评估来支持优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。