Credit: Clive Jones, Washington University in St. LouisBlame it on plate tectonics. One of the ways that scientists like Fike use deposits from the seafloor is to reconstruct timelines of past ecological and environmental change. "This told us that microbial activity did not drive the changes in bulk pyrite sulfur isotopes and refuted one of our major hypotheses." "That to me represents a huge step forward in being able to interpret what is recorded in these signals." More information: R. N. Bryant et al, Deconvolving microbial and environmental controls on marine sedimentary pyrite sulfur isotope ratios, Science (2023).

Source: The Nation November 23, 2023 20:48 UTC