Atmospheric nitrogen evolution on Earth and Venus

Abstract

Nitrogen is the most common element in Earth's atmosphere and also appears to be present in significant amounts in the mantle. However, its long-term cycling between these two reservoirs remains poorly understood. Here a range of biotic and abiotic mechanisms are evaluated that could have caused nitrogen exchange between Earth's surface and interior over time. In the Archean, biological nitrogen fixation was likely strongly limited by nutrient and/or electron acceptor constraints. Abiotic fixation of dinitrogen becomes efficient in strongly reducing atmospheres, but only once temperatures exceed around 1000 K. Hence if atmospheric N2 levels really were as low as they are today 3.0 - 3.5 Ga, the bulk of Earth's mantle nitrogen must have been emplaced in the Hadean, most likely at a time when the surface was molten. The elevated atmospheric N content on Venus compared to Earth can be explained abiotically by a water loss redox pump mechanism, where oxygen liberated from H2O photolysis and subsequent H loss to space oxidises the mantle, causing enhanced outgassing of nitrogen. This mechanism has implications for understanding the partitioning of other Venusian volatiles and atmospheric evolution on exoplanets.

arXiv comment12 pages, 5 figures, published in EPSL

References in corpus (11)

• The origins and concentrations of water, carbon, nitrogen and noble gases on Earth
• Evolution of the Solar Activity over Time and Effects on Planetary Atmospheres: I. High-energy Irradiances (1-1700 A)
• Extreme Water Loss and Abiotic O${}_2$ Buildup On Planets Throughout the Habitable Zones of M Dwarfs
• Disequilibrium Carbon, Oxygen, and Nitrogen Chemistry in the Atmospheres of HD 189733b and HD 209458b
• A chemical model for the atmosphere of hot Jupiters
• A rocky planet transiting a nearby low-mass star
• Abiotic oxygen-dominated atmospheres on terrestrial habitable zone planets
• The Nitrogen Budget of Earth
• Nitrogen Isotopic Composition and Density of the Archean Atmosphere
• Chemistry of atmospheres formed during accretion of the Earth and other terrestrial planets
• Origin of the Ocean on the Earth: Early Evolution of Water D/H in a Hydrogen-rich Atmosphere

Cited by in corpus (30)

• Exoplanet Biosignatures: Understanding Oxygen as a Biosignature in the Context of Its Environment
• Impact of Space Weather on Climate and Habitability of Terrestrial Type Exoplanets
• Venusian Habitable Climate Scenarios: Modeling Venus through time and applications to slowly rotating Venus-Like Exoplanets
• A coupled model of episodic warming, oxidation and geochemical transitions on early Mars
• Redox evolution via gravitational differentiation on low mass planets: implications for abiotic oxygen, water loss and habitability
• Atmospheres of Rocky Exoplanets
• Vertically resolved magma ocean-protoatmosphere evolution: H${}_2$, H${}_2$O, CO${}_2$, CH${}_4$, CO, O${}_2$, and N${}_2$ as primary absorbers
• Modeling pN2 through Geological Time: Implications for Planetary Climates and Atmospheric Biosignatures
• The long-term evolution of the atmosphere of Venus: processes and feedback mechanisms
• The Role of N2 as a Geo-Biosignature for the Detection and Characterization of Earth-like Habitats
• Phosphine on Venus Cannot be Explained by Conventional Processes
• Was Venus Ever Habitable? Constraints from a Coupled Interior-Atmosphere-Redox Evolution Model
• The young Sun's XUV-activity as a constraint for lower CO${}_2$-limits in the Earth's Archean atmosphere
• Dry Late Accretion inferred from Venus' coupled atmosphere and internal evolution
• Oxygen False Positives on Habitable Zone Planets Around Sun-Like Stars
• Reduced atmospheres of post-impact worlds: The early Earth
• The distribution of volatile elements during rocky planet formation
• Impact degassing and atmospheric erosion on Venus, Earth, and Mars during the late accretion
• Life as the Only Reason for the Existence of N2-O2-Dominated Atmospheres
• Possible Atmospheric Diversity of Low Mass Exoplanets, some Central Aspects
• How does Background Air Pressure Influence the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone for Tidally Locked Planets in a 3D View?
• Anatomy of rocky planets formed by rapid pebble accretion III. Partitioning of volatiles between planetary core, mantle, and atmosphere
• Climate Diversity in the Solar-Like Habitable Zone due to Varying Background Gas Pressure
• Temperature inversions on hot super-Earths: the case of CN in nitrogen-rich atmospheres
• The Cosmic Shoreline Revisited: A Metric for Atmospheric Retention Informed by Hydrodynamic Escape
• Constraining Background N2 Inventories on Directly Imaged Terrestrial Exoplanets to Rule Out O2 False Positives
• The origin of Earth's mantle nitrogen: primordial or early biogeochemical cycling?
• Earth: Atmospheric Evolution of a Habitable Planet
• Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: Stellar and Atmospheric Habitability
• Observability of ultraviolet N I lines in the atmosphere of transiting Earth-like planets