{"669640":{"#nid":"669640","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Faculty member Chris Reinhard published in Nature","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E12\/23\/2016\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/2016\/12\/21\/fertilizer-dearth-foiled-animal-evolution-eons\u0022\u003EFrom the Georgia Tech news stor\u003C\/a\u003Ey:\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFor three billion years or more, the evolution of the first animal life on Earth was ready to happen, practically waiting in the wings. But the breathable oxygen it likely required wasn\u2019t there, and a lack of simple nutrients may have been to blame.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThen came a fierce planetary metamorphosis. Roughly 800 million years ago, in the late Proterozoic Eon, phosphorus, a chemical element essential to all life, began to accumulate in shallow ocean zones near coastlines widely considered to be the birthplace of animals and other complex organisms, according to\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature\/journal\/vaop\/ncurrent\/full\/nature20772.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ea new study by geoscientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Yale University\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAlong with phosphorus accumulation came an oceanic chemical chain reaction, which included other nutrients, that powered organisms to pump oxygen into the atmosphere and waters. Shortly after that transition, which in geohistorical terms can mean about 100 million years, waves of climate extremes swept the globe,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.snowballearth.org\/what.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Efreezing it over twice\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;for tens of millions of years each time, a highly regarded theory holds.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe elevated availability of nutrients and bolstered oxygen also likely fueled\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.rh.gatech.edu\/news\/555171\/animals-evolution-waited-eons-inhale\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eevolution\u2019s greatest lunge forward\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAfter billions of years, during which life consisted almost entirely of single-celled organisms, animals evolved. At first, they were extremely simple, resembling today\u2019s sponges or jellyfish, but Earth was on its way from being, for eons, a planet less than hospitable to complex life to\u0026nbsp;one bursting with it.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.news.gatech.edu\/2016\/12\/21\/fertilizer-dearth-foiled-animal-evolution-eons\u0022\u003EYou can read the entire Georgia Tech article here.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBio\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EDr. Chris Reinhard\u2019s background is originally in evolutionary biology, but his past and current research is best characterized as falling under the label of \u0027deep time biogeochemistry\u0027 \u2014 He is fascinated and astonished by the observation that our planet has come to support a pervasive biosphere, and seek to reconstruct how we got here. This involves combining techniques from aqueous geochemistry, geology, and biogeochemical modeling in an effort to reconstruct Earth surface environments as they have changed over long timescales through Earth\u0027s deep history and how this evolution has been coupled with the evolution of microbial and macroscopic life. He received his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of California, Riverside in 2012 and joined Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in 2014.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDr. Chris Reinhard\u2019s background is originally in evolutionary biology, but his past and current research is best characterized as falling under the label of \u0027deep time biogeochemistry\u0027 \u2014 He is fascinated and astonished by the observation that our planet has come to support a pervasive biosphere, and seek to reconstruct how we got here. This involves combining techniques from aqueous geochemistry, geology, and biogeochemical modeling in an effort to reconstruct Earth surface environments as they have changed over long timescales through Earth\u0027s deep history and how this evolution has been coupled with the evolution of microbial and macroscopic life. He received his Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of California, Riverside in 2012 and joined Georgia Tech as an Assistant Professor in 2014.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Dr. Christopher Reinhard, assistant professor in Earth \u0026 Atmospheric Sciences, has been published in the journal Nature."}],"uid":"36238","created_gmt":"2023-09-13 16:23:45","changed_gmt":"2023-09-13 16:46:06","author":"arcs-stuweb03","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2017-03-09T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2017-03-09T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/reinhard.gatech.edu","title":"Chris Reinhard\u0027s research group page"},{"url":"https:\/\/eas.gatech.edu\/people\/reinhard-dr-chris","title":"Chris Reinhard\u0027s faculty page"}],"groups":[{"id":"364801","name":"EAS"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}