Marine phosphate availability and the chemical origins of life on Earth.

ABSTRACT: Prebiotic systems chemistry suggests that high phosphate concentrations were necessary to synthesise molecular building blocks and sustain primitive cellular systems. However, current understanding of mineral solubility predicts negligible phosphate concentrations for most natural waters, yet the role of Fe²⁺, ubiquitous on early Earth, is poorly quantified. Here we determine the solubility of Fe(II)-phosphate in synthetic seawater as a function of pH and ionic strength, integrate these observations into a thermodynamic model that predicts phosphate concentrations across a range of aquatic conditions, and validate these predictions against modern anoxic sediment pore waters. Experiments and models show that Fe²⁺ significantly increases the solubility of all phosphate

SUBMITTER: Brady MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9440033 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature