Limited oxygen production in the Mesoarchean ocean

Significance Episodic development of “oxygen oases” during the Archean Eon characterizes the hundreds of millions of years transition to permanent oxygenation in the atmosphere–hydrosphere system at the Great Oxidation Event (∼2.4–2.3 Ga). One of these well-characterized oxygen oases is recorded in Mesoarchean sediments of the Pongola Supergroup. We show that in contrast to the Neoarchean, biological oxygen production in a shallow ocean having Mo-based nitrogen fixation was not sufficient to result in a dissolved nitrogen reservoir that would carry the isotopic effects of an aerobic nitrogen cycle. Nevertheless, it appears that low concentrations of bioavailable phosphorus, rather than nitrogen, suppressed the growth and expansion of oxygenic photosynthesizers and may explain why pervasive and permanent oxygenation was delayed during the Archean Eon.