Wing Boswell A.

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Wing
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Boswell A.
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  • Article
    A productivity collapse to end earth's great oxidation
    (National Academy of Sciences, 2019-08-27) Hodgskiss, Malcolm S. W. ; Crockford, Peter W. ; Peng, Yongbo ; Wing, Boswell A. ; Horner, Tristan J.
    It has been hypothesized that the overall size of—or efficiency of carbon export from—the biosphere decreased at the end of the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) (ca. 2,400 to 2,050 Ma). However, the timing, tempo, and trigger for this decrease remain poorly constrained. Here we test this hypothesis by studying the isotope geochemistry of sulfate minerals from the Belcher Group, in subarctic Canada. Using insights from sulfur and barium isotope measurements, combined with radiometric ages from bracketing strata, we infer that the sulfate minerals studied here record ambient sulfate in the immediate aftermath of the GOE (ca. 2,018 Ma). These sulfate minerals captured negative triple-oxygen isotope anomalies as low as ∼ −0.8‰. Such negative values occurring shortly after the GOE require a rapid reduction in primary productivity of >80%, although even larger reductions are plausible. Given that these data imply a collapse in primary productivity rather than export efficiency, the trigger for this shift in the Earth system must reflect a change in the availability of nutrients, such as phosphorus. Cumulatively, these data highlight that Earth’s GOE is a tale of feast and famine: A geologically unprecedented reduction in the size of the biosphere occurred across the end-GOE transition.
  • Article
    Publisher Correction : Pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2018-01-18) Horner, Tristan J. ; Pryer, Helena V. ; Nielsen, Sune G. ; Crockford, Peter W. ; Gauglitz, Julia M. ; Wing, Boswell A. ; Ricketts, Richard D.
    Correction to: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01229-5, Article published online 07 November 2017
  • Article
    Pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2017-11-07) Horner, Tristan J. ; Pryer, Helena V. ; Nielsen, Sune G. ; Crockford, Peter W. ; Gauglitz, Julia M. ; Wing, Boswell A. ; Ricketts, Richard D.
    Geochemical analyses of sedimentary barites (barium sulfates) in the geological record have yielded fundamental insights into the chemistry of the Archean environment and evolutionary origin of microbial metabolisms. However, the question of how barites were able to precipitate from a contemporary ocean that contained only trace amounts of sulfate remains controversial. Here we report dissolved and particulate multi-element and barium-isotopic data from Lake Superior that evidence pelagic barite precipitation at micromolar ambient sulfate. These pelagic barites likely precipitate within particle-associated microenvironments supplied with additional barium and sulfate ions derived from heterotrophic remineralization of organic matter. If active during the Archean, pelagic precipitation and subsequent sedimentation may account for the genesis of enigmatic barite deposits. Indeed, barium-isotopic analyses of barites from the Paleoarchean Dresser Formation are consistent with a pelagic mechanism of precipitation, which altogether offers a new paradigm for interpreting the temporal occurrence of barites in the geological record.