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Composition of continental crust altered by the emergence of land plants

Composition of continental crust altered by the emergence of land plants
Composition of continental crust altered by the emergence of land plants

The evolution of land plants during the Palaeozoic era transformed Earth’s biosphere. Because the Earth’s surface and interior are linked by tectonic processes, the linked evolution of the biosphere and sedimentary rocks should be recorded as a near-contemporary shift in the composition of the continental crust. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the isotopic signatures of zircon formed at subduction zones where marine sediments are transported into the mantle, thereby recording interactions between surface environments and the deep Earth. Using oxygen and lutetium–hafnium isotopes of magmatic zircon that respectively track surface weathering (time independent) and radiogenic decay (time dependent), we find a correlation in the composition of continental crust after 430 Myr ago, which is coeval with the onset of enhanced complexity and stability in sedimentary systems related to the evolution of vascular plants. The expansion of terrestrial vegetation brought channelled sand-bed and meandering rivers, muddy floodplains and thicker soils, lengthening the duration of weathering before final marine deposition. Collectively, our results suggest that the evolution of vascular plants coupled the degree of weathering and timescales of sediment routing to depositional basins where they were subsequently subducted and melted. The late Palaeozoic isotopic shift of zircon indicates that the greening of the continents was recorded in the deep Earth.

1752-0894
735-740
Spencer, Christopher
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Davies, Neil
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Gernon, Thomas
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Wang, Xi
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McMahon, William
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Morrell, Taylor Rae
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Hincks, Thea
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Pufahl, Peir
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Brasier, Alexander
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Seraine, Mariana
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Lu, Gui-Mei
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Spencer, Christopher
37a2e322-9435-40f1-b1ad-58d702b43176
Davies, Neil
bce27152-57f4-4626-a7be-725aaf461083
Gernon, Thomas
658041a0-fdd1-4516-85f4-98895a39235e
Wang, Xi
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McMahon, William
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Morrell, Taylor Rae
a289fa90-8e14-4f8f-a89b-912196f69f31
Hincks, Thea
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Pufahl, Peir
18980a46-6f33-4410-821a-f2fbfa456ca3
Brasier, Alexander
01918fc9-68d3-47d1-b527-d324f038780c
Seraine, Mariana
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Lu, Gui-Mei
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Spencer, Christopher, Davies, Neil, Gernon, Thomas, Wang, Xi, McMahon, William, Morrell, Taylor Rae, Hincks, Thea, Pufahl, Peir, Brasier, Alexander, Seraine, Mariana and Lu, Gui-Mei (2022) Composition of continental crust altered by the emergence of land plants. Nature Geoscience, 15 (9), 735-740. (doi:10.1038/s41561-022-00995-2).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The evolution of land plants during the Palaeozoic era transformed Earth’s biosphere. Because the Earth’s surface and interior are linked by tectonic processes, the linked evolution of the biosphere and sedimentary rocks should be recorded as a near-contemporary shift in the composition of the continental crust. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the isotopic signatures of zircon formed at subduction zones where marine sediments are transported into the mantle, thereby recording interactions between surface environments and the deep Earth. Using oxygen and lutetium–hafnium isotopes of magmatic zircon that respectively track surface weathering (time independent) and radiogenic decay (time dependent), we find a correlation in the composition of continental crust after 430 Myr ago, which is coeval with the onset of enhanced complexity and stability in sedimentary systems related to the evolution of vascular plants. The expansion of terrestrial vegetation brought channelled sand-bed and meandering rivers, muddy floodplains and thicker soils, lengthening the duration of weathering before final marine deposition. Collectively, our results suggest that the evolution of vascular plants coupled the degree of weathering and timescales of sediment routing to depositional basins where they were subsequently subducted and melted. The late Palaeozoic isotopic shift of zircon indicates that the greening of the continents was recorded in the deep Earth.

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Plants-and-Zircon-revisions-v.2_cleanb - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 24 June 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 29 August 2022
Additional Information: Funding Information: This paper benefited greatly from discussions with B. Keller. C.J.S., X.W. and M.S. were supported by the Natural Sciences and Environment Research Council, Discovery Grant RGPIN-2020-05639. T.R.I.M. was supported by the Natural Sciences and Environment Research Council, Undergraduate Student Research Award 551207 – 2020 with additional funding provided by L. Godin. T.M.G. and T.H. were supported by the Turing Institute under the EPSRC grant EP/N510129/1. N.S.D. and W.J.M. were supported by NERC grant NE/T00696X. G.-M.L. acknowledges support from the State Scholarship Fund of China Scholarship Council (202006410023). Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 468136
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/468136
ISSN: 1752-0894
PURE UUID: 840efa8e-1190-46eb-98cb-11c09f22a5d6
ORCID for Thomas Gernon: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-7717-2092
ORCID for Thea Hincks: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4537-6194

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Date deposited: 03 Aug 2022 16:46
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 04:04

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Contributors

Author: Christopher Spencer
Author: Neil Davies
Author: Thomas Gernon ORCID iD
Author: Xi Wang
Author: William McMahon
Author: Taylor Rae Morrell
Author: Thea Hincks ORCID iD
Author: Peir Pufahl
Author: Alexander Brasier
Author: Mariana Seraine
Author: Gui-Mei Lu

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