Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-06-02T14:41:20.779Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Heterogeneity in the Ediacaran–Cambrian coastal oceans: a sulphur isotope perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2019

Ying Lin ,
Nanping Wu Open the ORCID record for Nanping Wu [Opens in a new window] ,
Da Li  and
Hong-Fei Ling
Ying Lin
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Riverside, CA92521, USA Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sanya, Hainan Province572000, China
Nanping Wu*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD20742, USA
Da Li
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province210093, China
Hong-Fei Ling
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province210093, China
*
Author for correspondence: Nanping Wu, Email: wunanping@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Multiple sulphur isotope compositions of sedimentary pyrites across the Ediacaran–Cambrian (Ed–C) transition and into the early Cambrian from the Xiaotan section, Yunnan, South China, are presented to explore the evolution of the sulphur cycle. The values of δ34Spy range from 13.5 ‰ to 35.8 ‰, and the values of Δ33Spy range from −0.044 ‰ to 0.063 ‰. The first-order observation of highly positive δ34Spy is consistent with sulphur isotope records from other sedimentary successions (with various degrees of enrichment in 34S), reflecting a common feature in cycling of sulphur among ocean basins. The positive values suggest that pyrite was formed in a depositional setting with limiting availability of sulphate that suppressed the expression of microbial fractionations. The first-order observation of a 10-million-year period of negative Δ33Spy beginning around the Ed–C boundary likely reflects changes in isotopic compositions of sulphur influx to the oceans. Such changes are suggested to be linked to a pulse of preferred weathering of sulphides (with negative Δ33S) relative to sulphate, which may reflect enhanced exposure of pyrites in continental margins due to reorganization of continents at this time. Both δ34Spy and Δ33Spy data imply low seawater sulphate levels, and possibly heterogeneity in sulphate concentrations in the world’s coastal oceans. The predictions about sulphur isotope signatures of evolved seawater (with highly positive δ34S and negative Δ33S) at the Xiaotan section are testable with future measurements of carbonate-associated sulphate (CAS), a proxy of ancient oceanic sulphate that carries information about the operation of sulphur cycling on a global scale.

Keywords

sulphur isotopesedimentary pyritesedimentary sulphur cycleEdiacaran–Cambrian transition
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 157 , Issue 7 , July 2020 , pp. 1112 - 1120
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aller, RC (2014) Sedimentary diagenesis, depositional environments, and benthic fluxes. In Treatise on Geochemistry, vol. 8, 2nd edn (eds Holland, H and Turekian, KK), pp. 293–334. Oxford: Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aller, RC, Blair, NE and Brunskill, GJ (2008) Early diagenetic cycling, incineration, and burial of sedimentary organic carbon in the central gulf of Papua (Papua New Guinea). Journal of Geophysical Research 113, F01S09. doi: 10.1029/2006JF000689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aller, RC, Madrid, V, Chistoserdov, A, Aller, JY and Heilbrun, C (2010) Unsteady diagenetic processes and sulfur biogeochemistry in tropical deltaic muds: implications for oceanic isotope cycles and the sedimentary record. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 74, 4671–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bengtson, S (2002) Origins and early evolution of predation. Paleontological Society Papers 8, 289–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berner, RA (1984) Sedimentary pyrite formation: an update. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 48, 605–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berner, RA (2006) GEOCARBSULF: a combined model for Phanerozoic atmospheric O2 and CO2. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70, 5653–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Böttcher, ME, Brumsack, H-J and de Lange, GJ (1998) Sulfate reduction and related stable isotope (34S, 18O) variations in interstitial waters from the Eastern Mediterranean. In Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, vol. 160 (eds Robertson, AHF, Emeis, K-C, Richter, C and Camerlenghi, A), pp. 365–73. College Station, Texas.Google Scholar
Boyle, RA, Dahl, TW, Dale, AW, Shields-Zhou, GA, Zhu, M, Brasier, MD, Canfield, DE and Lenton, TM (2014) Stabilization of the coupled oxygen and phosphorus cycles by the evolution of bioturbation. Nature Geoscience 7, 671–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, AS, Leavitt, WD, Schmidt, M, Knoll, AH, Girguis, PR and Johnston, DT (2016) Patterns of sulfur isotope fractionation during microbial sulfate reduction. Geobiology, 14, 91–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butterfield, NJ (2001) Ecology and evolution of Cambrian plankton. In The Ecology of the Cambrian Radiation (eds Zhuravlev, AY and Riding, R), pp. 200–16. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Canfield, DE (2001) Biogeochemistry of sulfur isotopes. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 43, 607–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canfield, DE (2004) The evolution of the Earth surface sulfur reservoir. American Journal of Science 104, 839–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canfield, DE (2007) Late-Neoproterozoic deep-ocean oxygenation and the rise of animal life. Science 315, 92–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Canfield, DE and Farquhar, J (2009) Animal evolution, bioturbation, and the sulfate concentration of the oceans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106, 8123–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Canfield, DE, Farquhar, J and Zerkle, AL (2010) High isotope fractionations during sulfate reduction in a low-sulfate euxinic ocean analog. Geology 38, 415–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canfield, DE, Poulton, SW, Knoll, AH, Narbonne, GM, Ross, G, Goldberg, T and Strauss, H (2008) Ferruginous conditions dominated Late Neoproterozoic deep-water chemistry. Science 321, 949−51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canfield, DE, Raiswell, R, Westrich, JT, Reaves, CM and Berner, RA (1986) The use of chromium reduction in the analysis of reduced inorganic sulfur in sediments and shales. Chemical Geology 54, 149–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canfield, DE and Teske, A (1996) Late Proterozoic rise in atmospheric oxygen concentration inferred from phylogenetic and sulphur-isotope studies. Nature 382, 127–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Canfield, DE, Thamdrup, B (1994) The production of 34S-depleted sulfide during bacterial disproportionation of elemental sulfur. Science 266, 1973–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cremonese, L, Shields-Zhou, G, Struck, U, Ling, H-F, Och, L, Chen, X and Li, D (2013) Marine biogeochemical cycling during the early Cambrian constrained by a nitrogen and organic carbon isotope study of the Xiaotan section, South China. Precambrian Research 225, 148−65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cui, H, Kaufman, AJ, Xiao, S, Peek, S, Cao, H, Min, X, Cai, Y, Siegel, Z, Liu, X-M, Peng, Y, Schiffbauer, JD and Martin, AJ (2016) Environmental context for the terminal Ediacaran biomineralization of animals. Geobiology 14, 344−63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Erwin, DH and Davidson, EH (2002) The last common bilaterian ancestor. Development 129, 3021–32.Google ScholarPubMed
Erwin, DH, Laflamme, M, Tweedt, SM, Sperling, EA and Peterson, KJ (2011) The Cambrian conundrum: early divergence and later ecological success in the early history of animals. Science 334, 1091–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fan, H, Wen, H, Han, T, Zhu, X, Feng, L and Chang, H (2018) Oceanic redox condition during the late Ediacaran (551-541Ma), South China. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 238, 343–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farquhar, J, Bao, HM and Thiemens, M (2000) Atmospheric influence of Earth’s earliest sulfur-cycle. Science 289, 756–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farquhar, J and Wing, BA (2003) Multiple sulfur isotopes and the evolution of the atmosphere. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 213, 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feng, LJ, Li, C, Huang, J, Chang, HJ and Chu, XL (2014) A sulfate control on marine mid-depth euxinia on the early Cambrian (ca. 529-521Ma) Yangtze platform, South China. Precambrian Research 246, 123–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fike, DA, Bradley, AS and Rose, CV (2015) Rethinking the ancient sulfur cycle. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 43, 593–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fike, DA and Grotzinger, JP (2008) A paired sulfate-pyrite δ34S approach to understanding the evolution of the Ediacaran-Cambrian sulfur cycle. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 72, 2636–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fike, DA, Grotzinger, JP, Pratt, LM and Summons, RE (2006) Oxidation of the Ediacaran Ocean. Nature 444, 744−7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garrels, RM and Lerman, A (1981) Phanerozoic cycles of sedimentary carbon and sulfur. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 78, 4550–656.Google ScholarPubMed
Gomes, ML and Hurtgen, MT (2013) Sulfur isotope systematics of a euxinic, low-sulfate lake: evaluating the importance of the reservoir effect in modern and ancient oceans. Geology 41, 663–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grotzinger, JP, Bowring, SA, Saylor, BZ and Kaufman, AJ (1995) Biostratigraphic and geochronologic constraints on early animal evolution. Science 270, 598–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habicht, KS and Canfield, DE (2001) Isotope fractionation by sulfate-reducing natural populations and the isotopic composition of sulfide in marine sediments. Geology 29, 555–8.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, JM, Strauss, H, and Kaufman, AJ (1999) The abundance of 13C in marine organic matter and isotope fractionation in the global biogeochemical cycle of carbon during the past 800 Ma. Chemical Geology 161, 103–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horita, J, Zimmermann, H and Holland, HD (2002) Chemical evolution of seawater during the Phanerozoic: implications from the record of marine evaporites. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 66, 3733–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, DT, Poulton, SW, Fralick, PW, Wing, BA, Canfield, DE and Farquhar, J (2006) Evolution of the oceanic sulfur cycle at the end of the Paleoproterozoic. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70, 5723–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, DT, Wing, BA, Farquhar, J, Kaufman, AJ, Strauss, H, Lyons, TW, Kah, LC and Canfield, DE (2005) Active microbial sulfur disproportionation in the Mesoproterozoic. Science 310, 1477−9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jorgensen, BB, and Kasten, S (2006) Sulfur cycling and methane oxidation. In Marine Geochemistry (eds Shulz, HD and Mattias, Z.), pp. 271–309. Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kampschulte, A and Strauss, H (2004) The sulfur isotopic evolution of Phanerozoic seawater based on the analysis of structurally substituted sulfate in carbonates. Chemical Geology 204, 255–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, AJ, Corsetti, FA and Varni, MA (2007) The effect of rising atmospheric oxygen on carbon and sulfur isotope anomalies in the Neoproterozoic Johnnie Formation, Death Valley, USA. Chemical Geology 237, 65–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kump, LR and Arthur, MA (1999) Interpreting carbon-isotope excursions: carbonates and organic matter. Chemical Geology 161, 181–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurzweil, F, Drost, K, Pašav, J, Wille, M, Taubald, H, Schoeckle, D and Schoenberg, R (2015) Coupled sulfur, iron and molybdenum isotope data from black shales of the Teplá-Barrandian unit argue against deep ocean oxygenation during the Ediacaran. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 171, 121–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laflamme, M, Darroch, S, Tweedt, SM, Peterson, KJ and Erwin, DH (2013) The end of the Ediacara biota: extinction, biotic replacement, or Cheshire Cat? Gondwana Research 23, 558–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leavitt, WD, Halevy, I, Bradley, AS and Johnston, DT (2013) Influence of sulfate reduction rates on the Phanerozoic sulfur isotope record. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110, 11244–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, C, Love, GD, Lyons, TW, Fike, DA, Sessions, AL and Chu, X (2010) A stratified redox model for the Ediacaran ocean. Science 328, 80−3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Li, D, Ling, H, Jiang, S, Pan, J, Chen, Y, Cai, Y and Feng, H (2009) New carbon isotope stratigraphy of the Ediacaran–Cambrian boundary interval from SW China: implications for global correlation. Geological Magazine 146, 465–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, D, Ling, H, Shields-Zhou, GA, Chen, X, Cremonese, L, Och, L, Thirlwall, M and Manning, CJ (2013) Carbon and strontium isotope evolution of seawater across the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition: evidence from the Xiaotan section, NE Yunnan, South China. Precambrian Research 225, 128−47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loyd, SJ, Marenco, PJ, Hagadorn, JW, Lyons, TW, Kaufman, AJ, Sour-Tovar, F and Corsetti, FA (2012) Sustained low marine sulfate concentrations from the Neoproterozoic to the Cambrian: insights from carbonates of northwestern Mexico and eastern California. Earth Planetary Science Letters 339−340, 79−94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, TW, Reinhard, CT and Planavsky, NJ (2014) The rise of oxygen in Earth’s early ocean and atmosphere. Nature 506, 307−15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maloof, AC, Ramezani, J, Bowring, SA, Fike, DA, Porter, SM and Mazouad, M (2010) Constraints on early Cambrian carbon cycling from the duration of the Nemakit-Daldynian–Tommotian boundary delta C-13 shift, Morocco. Geology 38, 623–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McFadden, KA, Huang, J, Chu, X, Jiang, G, Kaufman, AJ, Zhou, C, Yuan, X and Xiao, S (2008) Pulsed oxidation and biological evolution in the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105, 3197–202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Och, LM, Cremonese, L, Shields-Zhou, GA, Poulton, SW, Struck, U, Ling, H, Li, D, Chen, X, Manning, C, Thirlwall, M, Strauss, H and Zhu, M (2015) Palaeoceanographic controls on spatial redox distribution over the Yangtze Platform during the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition. Sedimentology 63, 378−410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Och, LM, Shields-Zhou, GA, Poulton, SW, Manning, C, Thirlwall, MF, Li, D, Chen, X, Ling, H, Osborn, T and Cremonese, L (2013) Redox changes in Early Cambrian black shales at Xiaotan section, Yunnan Province, South China. Precambrian Research 225, 166−89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, KJ and Davidson, EH (2000) Regulatory evolution and the origin of the bilaterians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 97, 4430–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Price, FT and Shieh, YN (1979) The distribution and isotopic composition of sulfur in coals from the Illinois Basin. Economic Geology 74, 1445–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raiswell, R and Canfield, DE (1998) Sources of iron for pyrite formation in marine sediments. American Journal of Science 298, 219–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rickard, D (2012) Sulfidic Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks. Developments in Sedimentology, vol. 65. Oxford: Elsevier Science Ltd, 801 pp.Google Scholar
Ries, JB, Fike, DA, Pratt, LM, Lyons, TW and Grotzinger, JP (2009) Superheavy pyrite (δ34Spyr>δ34SCAS) in the terminal Proterozoic Nama Group, southern Namibia: a consequence of low seawater sulfate at the dawn of animal life. Geology 37, 743−6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sadler, PM (1981) Sediment accumulation rates and the completeness of stratigraphic sections. Journal of Geology 89, 569−84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahoo, SK, Planavsky, NJ, Jiang, G, Kendall, B, Owens, JD, Wang, X, Shi, X, Anbar, AD and Lyons, TW (2016) Oceanic oxygenation events in the anoxic Ediacaran ocean. Geobiology 14, 457−68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schrag, DP, Higgins, JA, Macdonald, FA and Johnston, DT (2013) Authigenic carbonate and the history of the global carbon cycle. Science 239, 540−3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen, B, Xiao, S, Zhou, C, Kaufman, AJ and Yuan, X (2010) Carbon and sulfur isotope chemostratigraphy of the Neoproterozoic Quanji Group of the Chaidam Basin, NW China: basin stratification in the aftermath of an Ediacaran glaciation postdating the Shuram event? Precambrian Research 177, 241−52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shi, W, Li, C, Luo, G, Huang, J, Algeo, TJ, Jin, C, Zhang, Z and Cheng, M (2018) Sulfur isotope evidence for transient marine-shelf oxidation during the Ediacaran Shuram Excursion. Geology 46, 267–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shields-Zhou, G and Zhu, M (2013) Biogeochemical changes across the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition in South China. Precambrian Research 225, 1−6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sim, MS, Bosak, T and Ono, S (2011) Large sulfur isotope fractionation does not require disproportionation. Science 333, 74–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, RW, Bianchi, TS, Allison, M, Savage, C and Galy, V (2015) High rates of organic carbon burial in fjord sediments globally. Nature Geoscience 8, 450−3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sperling, EA, Knoll, AH and Girguis, PR (2015) The ecological physiology of Earth’s second oxygen revolution. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 46, 215−35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarhan, LG, Droser, ML, Planavsky, NJ and Johnston, DT (2015) Protracted development of bioturbation through the early Palaeozoic Era. Nature Geoscience 8, 865−9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wing, BA and Halevy, I (2014) Intracellular metabolite levels shape sulfur isotope fractionation during microbial sulfate respiration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111, 18116–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wu, N (2013) Sulfur isotopic evolution of Phanerozoic and Ediacaran seawater sulfate based on the analysis of carbonate associated sulfate. PhD thesis. University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA. Published thesis.Google Scholar
Wu, N, Farquhar, J and Fike, D (2015) Ediacaran sulfur cycle: insight from δ34S and Δ33S measurements of paired sulfate-pyrite in the Huqf Supergroup of Oman. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 164, 352–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, N, Farquhar, J and Strauss, H (2014) δ34S and Δ33S records of Paleozoic seawater sulphate based on the analysis of carbonate associated sulphate. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 399, 44–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, N, Farquhar, J, Strauss, H, Kim, S-T and Canfield, DE (2010) Evaluating the S-isotope fractionation associated with Phanerozoic pyrite burial. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 74, 2053–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar