Instruct: Identify the main and secondary category of Arxiv papers based on the titles and abstracts
Query: Modeling pN2 through Geological Time: Implications for Planetary
  Climates and Atmospheric Biosignatures   Nitrogen is a major nutrient for all life on Earth and could plausibly play a
similar role in extraterrestrial biospheres. The major reservoir of nitrogen at
Earth's surface is atmospheric N2, but recent studies have proposed that the
size of this reservoir may have fluctuated significantly over the course of
Earth's history with particularly low levels in the Neoarchean - presumably as
a result of biological activity. We used a biogeochemical box model to test
which conditions are necessary to cause large swings in atmospheric N2
pressure. Parameters for our model are constrained by observations of modern
Earth and reconstructions of biomass burial and oxidative weathering in deep
time. A 1-D climate model was used to model potential effects on atmospheric
climate. In a second set of tests, we perturbed our box model to investigate
which parameters have the greatest impact on the evolution of atmospheric pN2
and consider possible implications for nitrogen cycling on other planets. Our
results suggest that (a) a high rate of biomass burial would have been needed
in the Archean to draw down atmospheric pN2 to less than half modern levels,
(b) the resulting effect on temperature could probably have been compensated by
increasing solar luminosity and a mild increase in pCO2, and (c) atmospheric
oxygenation could have initiated a stepwise pN2 rebound through oxidative
weathering. In general, life appears to be necessary for significant
atmospheric pN2 swings on Earth-like planets. Our results further support the
idea that an exoplanetary atmosphere rich in both N2 and O2 is a signature of
an oxygen-producing biosphere.

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The categories of this paper are: funct-an
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The categories of this paper are: econ
2
The categories of this paper are: math
21
The categories of this paper are: adap-org
0
The categories of this paper are: hep-ph
3
The categories of this paper are: physics
20
The categories of this paper are: acc-phys
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The categories of this paper are: chem-ph
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The categories of this paper are: hep-th
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The categories of this paper are: supr-con
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The categories of this paper are: gr-qc
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The categories of this paper are: hep-ex
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The categories of this paper are: mtrl-th
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The categories of this paper are: solv-int
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The categories of this paper are: math-ph
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The categories of this paper are: ao-sci