Speaker Bios (Current Season)

June 12th, 2025

Phosphorus is a limiting nutrient for marine life, and is thought to control rates of oceanic photosynthesis, and by extension atmospheric CO2 and O2 levels to a large extent. As such phosphorus has been implicated as a driver for the evolution of oxygen-dependant complex life and its extinction. Although there has been a sustained efforts to reconstruct the dynamics of the phosphorus cycle over Earth history, it remains uncertain whether phosphorus has consistently modulated biospheric productivity and ocean–atmosphere oxygen levels over time. In this talk I will discuss the latest developments in our understanding of the marine phosphorous cycle during the Ediacaran period and its long-term controls on Earth's climate and habitability.