Sulfur Cycle - Evolution of The Sulfur Cycle

Evolution of The Sulfur Cycle

The isotopic composition of sedimentary sulfides provides primary information on the evolution of the sulfur cycle.

The total inventory of sulfur compounds on the surface of the Earth (nearly 1022g S) represents the total outgassing of sulfur through geologic time. Rocks analyzed for sulfur content are generally organic-rich shales meaning they are likely controlled by biogenic sulfur reduction. Average seawater curves are generated from evaporites deposited throughout geologic time because again, since they do not discriminate between the heavy and light sulfur isotopes, they should mimic the ocean composition at the time of deposition.

4.6 billion years ago (Ga) the Earth formed and had a theoretical δ34S value of 0. Since there was no biologic activity on early Earth there would be no isotopic fractionation. All sulfur in the atmosphere would be released during volcanic eruptions. When the oceans condensed on Earth, the atmosphere was essentially swept clean of sulfur gases, owing to their high solubility in water. Throughout the majority of the Archean (4.6–2.5 Ga) most systems appeared to be sulfate-limited. Some small Archean evaporite deposits require that at least locally elevated concentrations (possibly due to local volcanic activity) of sulfate existed in order for them to be supersaturated and precipitate out of solution.

3.8–3.6 Ga marks the beginning of the exposed geologic record because this is the age of the oldest rocks on Earth. Metasedimentary rocks from this time still have an isotopic value of 0 because the biosphere was not developed enough (possibly at all) to fractionate sulfur.

3.5 Ga anoxyogenic photosynthesis is established and provides a weak source of sulfate to the global ocean with sulfate concentrations incredibly low the δ34S is still basically 0. Shortly after, at 3.4 Ga the first evidence for minimal fractionation in evaporitic sulfate in association with magmatically derived sulfides can be seen in the rock record. This fractionation shows possible evidence for anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria.

2.8 Ga marks the first evidence for oxygen production through photosynthesis. This is important because there cannot be sulfur oxidation without oxygen in the atmosphere. This exemplifies the coevolution of the oxygen and sulfur cycles as well as the biosphere.

2.7–2.5 Ga is the age of the oldest sedimentary rocks to have a depleted δ 34S which provide the first compelling evidence for sulfate reduction.

2.3 Ga sulfate increases to more than 1 mM; this increase in sulfate is coincident with the “Great Oxygenation Event", when redox conditions on Earth’s surface are thought by most workers to have shifted fundamentally from reducing to oxidizing. This shift would have led to an incredible increase in sulfate weathering which would have led to an increase in sulfate in the oceans. The large isotopic fractionations that would likely be associated with bacteria reduction are produced for the first time. Although there was a distinct rise in seawater sulfate at this time it was likely still only less than 5–15% of present-day levels.

At 1.8 Ga, Banded iron formations (BIF) are common sedimentary rocks throughout the Archean and Paleoproterozoic; their disappearance marks a distinct shift in the chemistry of ocean water. BIFs have alternating layers of iron oxides and chert. BIFs only form if the water is be allowed to supersaturate in dissolved iron (Fe2+) meaning there cannot be free oxygen or sulfur in the water column because it would form Fe3+ (rust) or pyrite and precipitate out of solution. Following this supersaturation, the water must become oxygenated in order for the ferric rich bands to precipitate it must still be sulfur poor otherwise pyrite would form instead of Fe3+. It has been hypothesized that BIFs formed during to the initial evolution of photosynthetic organisms that had phases of population growth, causing over production of oxygen. Due to this over production they would poison themselves causing a mass die off, which would cut off the source of oxygen and produce a large amount of CO₂ through the decomposition of their bodies, allowing for another bacterial bloom. After 1.8 Ga sulfate concentrations were sufficient to increase rates of sulfate reduction to greater than the delivery flux of iron to the oceans.

Along with the disappearance of BIF, the end of the Paleoproterozoic also marks the first large scale sedimentary exhalative deposits showing a link between mineralization and a likely increase in the amount of sulfate in sea water. In the Paleoproterozoic the sulfate in seawater had increased to an amount greater than in the Archean, but was still lower than present day values. The sulfate levels in the Proterozoic also act as proxies for atmospheric oxygen because sulfate is produced mostly through weathering of the continents in the presence of oxygen. The low levels in the Proterozoic simply imply that levels of atmospheric oxygen fell between the abundances of the Phanerozoic and the deficiencies of the Archean.

750 million years ago (Ma) there is a renewed deposition of BIF which marks a significant change in ocean chemistry. This was likely due to snowball earth episodes where the entire globe including the oceans was covered in a layer of ice cutting off oxygenation. In the late Neoproterozoic high carbon burial rates increased the atmospheric oxygen level to >10% of its present day value. In the Latest Neoproterozoic another major oxidizing event occurred on Earth’s surface that resulted in an oxic deep ocean and possibly allowed for the appearance of multicellular life.

During the last 600 million years, seawater SO₄ has varied between +10 and +30‰ in δ34S, with an average value close to that of today. This coincides with atmospheric O levels reaching something close to modern values around the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary.

Over a shorter time scale (ten million years) changes in the sulfur cycle are easier to observe and can be even better constrained with oxygen isotopes. Oxygen is continually incorporated into the sulfur cycle through sulfate oxidation and then released when that sulfate is reduced once again. Since different sulfate sources within the ocean have distinct oxygen isotopic values it may be possible to use oxygen to trace the sulfur cycle. Biological sulfate reduction preferentially selects lighter oxygen isotopes for the same reason that lighter sulfur isotopes are preferred. By studying oxygen isotopes in ocean sediments over the last 10 million years were able to better constrain the sulfur concentrations in sea water through that same time. They found that the sea level changes due to Pliocene and Pleistocene glacial cycles changed the area of continental shelves which then disrupted the sulfur processing, lowering the concentration of sulfate in the sea water. This was a drastic change as compared to preglacial times before 2 million years ago.