Controls on Mesoproterozoic ocean redox heterogeneity, and links to nutrient cycling and oxygenation feedbacks, remain poorly resolved. Here, we report ocean redox and phosphorus cycling across two high-resolution sections from the ~1.4 Ga Xiamaling Formation, North China Craton. In the lower section, fluctuations in trade wind intensity regulated the spatial extent of a ferruginous oxygen minimum zone, promoting phosphorus drawdown and persistent oligotrophic conditions. In the upper section, high but variable continental chemical weathering rates led to periodic fluctuations between highly and weakly euxinic conditions, promoting phosphorus recycling and persistent eutrophication. Biogeochemical modeling demonstrates how changes in geographical location relative to global atmospheric circulation cells could have driven these temporal changes in regional ocean biogeochemistry. Our approach suggests that much of the ocean redox heterogeneity apparent in the Mesoproterozoic record can be explained by climate forcing at individual locations, rather than specific events or step-changes in global oceanic redox conditions.

Yafang Song, Fred T. Bowyer, Benjamin J. W. Mills, Andrew S. Merdith, Paul B. Wignall, Jeff Peakall, Shuichang Zhang, Xiaomei Wang, Huajian Wang, Donald E. Canfield, Graham A. Shields, Simon W. Poulton