[Current Biology (Cell)] Atmospheric and ocean oxygen levels and temperature have changed considerably over Earth history, and many of these changes coincided with similarly dramatic changes in marine life.
Gaia
![Percentage of 1,000 stochastic paths that converge shown as color maps for e “ 0.1, 0.3. The two bracketed values in the title of each sub-figure are the critical deterministic values of S ˚ for convergence and bifurcation given in Table A.2. The white and black horizontal lines are the convergence and bifurcation values respectively. Additional figures are found in the Supplementary Material (Appendix C). -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Stochastic-Snowball.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology
Stochastic Snowball States in Planetary Climate
[astro-ph.EP] Motivated by the recent finding of Ji and Abbot (2025) that at moderate eccentricity (0.2–0.3) the planetary Snowball bistability vanishes, we have introduced stochasticity of the orbital eccentricity into […]
Posted inOrigin & Evolution of Life
The Role Of Minerals In Prebiotic Evolution: Implications For Identifying Worlds With The Potential For Life’s Origin
[Fundamental Research] Understanding the origin of life requires explaining how abiotic molecules transitioned into the first living systems within plausible geological settings. Increasing evidence suggests minerals as active participants in […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather
Ancient Seas Reveal Times When The Earth Rapidly Shifted Relative To Its Axis
[AAAS] Ancient sea-level changes provide new evidence that during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, Earth underwent episodes of rapid “true polar wander” (TPW).
Posted inWater/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
How Ocean Chemistry On Earth Helped Life Keep Breathing
[UC Riverside] Scientists have helped solve a longstanding mystery about how Earth remained habitable after oxygen first accumulated in its atmosphere more than 2 billion years ago, providing evidence that […]
Posted inCryobiology
Antarctica’s Only Two Flowering Plants Reveal Opposing Strategies For Surviving Long-term Warming
[Instituto de Ecologia y Biodiversidad] A team of Chilean and Spanish researchers has published in the scientific journal Physiologia Plantarum the results of one of the longest-running in situ warming […]
Posted inGaia - Planetary Perspectives
Planetary Health Check 2026 Finds Mounting Pressures Across Earth’s Life Support Systems – Reports And Proceedings
[Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)] Seven breached Planetary Boundaries continue to worsen as record ocean heat, droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme heat reveal an Earth system under strain, […]
![Left: Average ocean fraction, calculated assuming a seawater freezing point of −1.8°𝐶 for Cases 1 and 3 and 0°𝐶 for Case 2. White shows the ice, and blue ocean. Middle: The mean near-surface air temperatures. Shown within the black contours are the regions where these vary between above and below freezing over the course of a single Earth year. Right: The mean surface temperatures. Also shown within the black contours are the regions where these vary between above and below freezing over the course of a single Earth year: these regions are narrower than the air ‘perifreezing zone’.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Sea-Ice.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inWater/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Sea Ice As An Origin Of Life Location For Hycean And Ocean Worlds
[astro-ph.EP] Water worlds with potential deep oceans are at the forefront of currently observable exoplanetary habitability.
Posted inWater/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Iron Helped Scientists Trace Earth’s Oxygen. Now It’s Telling A Bigger Story
[Michigan State University] For decades, scientists have studied iron preserved in ancient rocks to reconstruct how Earth’s oceans and atmosphere became rich in oxygen. A new study suggests iron has […]
Posted inGaia - Planetary Perspectives
Global Carbon Fixation In Earth’s Subsurface Biosphere
[biorxiv.org] The subsurface of our planet hosts 15% of Earth’s biomass and plays a key role in mediating the exchange of volatiles and elements between deep, long-residence-time geological reservoirs and […]