ArticleScience advances2025
Large closed-basin lakes sustainably supplied phosphate during the origins of life.
Article in Science advances, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mafic-ultramafic igneous rocks as a source of reactive phosphorus for the origin of life.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Shadow of a Shadow: Ferrocyanide and Nitroprusside as Sunscreens for Photosensitive Prebiotic Molecules.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Magmatic and thermally produced reactive phosphorus 3.2 billion years ago and its implications for early life.Communications earth & environment · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The origin of life on Earth required a supply of phosphorus (P) for the synthesis of universal biomolecules. Closed lakes may have accumulated high P concentrations on early Earth. However, it is not clear whether prebiotic P uptake in such settings would then have been sustainable. We show that large closed-basin lakes can combine high P concentrations at steady state with extremely high rates of biological productivity. Our case study is Mono Lake in California, which has close to 1 millimolar dissolved P at steady state despite extremely high rates of biological productivity, in contrast to smaller closed basins where life is scarce. Hence, large closed-basin lakes offer an environment where high rates of prebiotic P productivity can plausibly coexist with high steady-state P concentrations. Such lakes should have readily formed on the heavily cratered and volcanically active surface of early Earth.
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Registered trials
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