Recently, the research group led by Li Gaojun from School of Earth Sciences and Engineering at Nanjing University has reinterpreted the evolution of seawater δ7Li (lithium isotopic composition) over the past 3 billion years. By applying a regolith-scale weathering kinetic model that considers the partial pressure of atmospheric oxygen (pO2) as a first-order control on regolith thickness and continental weathering intensity, sources and sinks of the oceanic Li reservoir have been quantitatively constrained. A box model of seawater dissolved Li predicts a ~22‰ increase in seawater δ7Li in response to a 100-fold rise in pO2. This magnitude of pO2 increase is consistent with the reconstruction of pO2 rise since the Neoproterozoic, and the predicted δ7Li shift closely matches the seawater δ7Li record. These results provide a compelling explanation for the extremely low seawater δ7Li values prior to the Phanerozoic and support atmospheric oxygenation as a primary driver of globally enhanced continental weathering through deep time. The study was published on December 18, 2025, in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta under the title "Linking lithium isotopic composition of seawater to atmospheric oxygenation" (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2025.12.013).
