Project description
Uncovering the limits of early life on Earth
Although life on Earth began billions of years ago, little is known about the factors that influenced early life. Understanding what constrained the early biosphere has profound implications not only for the history of life on our planet but also for assessing whether life could emerge on other planets. Previous studies suggest early life was limited by metabolic energy. The ERC-funded QuantiPhox project challenges this assumption by investigating the biogeochemical cycles of phosphorus and nitrogen on early Earth. Researchers will focus on reduced phosphorus, which is far more bioavailable than conventional phosphate. They will conduct laboratory experiments, analyse rock records and build computational models to obtain information on energy availability.
Objective
What limited the size of Earth’s early biosphere? Answering this question has critical implications for constraining the pace of early evolution and the habitability of other terrestrial planets. Previous studies have suggested that the early biosphere was limited by metabolic energy, specifically the supply of electron donors. This proposition implies that phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) – the key biolimiting nutrients today – were available in excess. However, current estimates of dissolved P in Precambrian seawater range over five orders of magnitude, and N fluxes are poorly quantified, prohibiting accurate reconstructions of biological limits on the early Earth. I propose to resolve these disparities with an ambitious research program that (a) investigates the early Precambrian P cycle from source to sink, (b) includes new tools to differentiate between P redox states that greatly impact P solubility, and (c) builds a computational box model of P, N and electron donors to quantitatively assess what limited early life on Earth and possibly other planets.
The major technical advance of this project will be a systematic investigation of reduced P (phosphite) in the rock record and in laboratory experiments. Although phosphite constitutes only a few percent of total P in igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, it is ca. 1,000-times more soluble than the more widely studied phosphate and therefore more bioavailable. However, little is known about the biogeochemical cycle of reduced P. Integrating reduced P into paleo-environmental reconstructions and accounting for environmental gradients will enable a step-change in current understanding. The new P datasets, integrated with existing N data and estimates of electron donor fluxes, will enable me to place new quantitative constraints on whether P, N or energy limited early life from the Archean across the Great Oxidation Event, with wider implications for assessing the habitability of other terrestrial worlds.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences electrochemistry electrolysis
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy planetary sciences planets
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences meteorology biosphera
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
KY16 9AJ ST ANDREWS
United Kingdom
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