Interaction Between Vegetation And Snowball Phases In The Late Proterozoic Earth

Between 2.4 and 0.6 Gy ago, our planet underwent several episodes of global glaciations, including the Snowball Earth case that ended 635 My ago.

Causes of this last Snowball event presumably included a decreased greenhouse gas concentration and high continental albedo, both associated with the passage of the super-continent Rodinia at equatorial latitudes.

When large continental masses are in equatorial regions, silicate weathering is enhanced, leading to decreased atmospheric CO₂ concentration, while the bare continental masses, which at the time hosted no vegetation, enhanced reflection of solar radiation.

Since then, no other Snowball episodes were recorded. Here we numerically explore the climatic dynamics of a rocky planet for different values of solar output, continental configuration (current and Rodinia-like), CO₂ concentration and continental albedo, simulating the effects of land vegetation.

We found that for the solar input typical of 600-700 My ago (95% of the current value), the presence of bare continents with albedo 0.35 (granite) in the position estimated for Rodinia was sufficient to trigger a Snowball state for CO₂ concentrations up to at least 1000 ppm.

When bare continents are located in modern positions, Snowball could be triggered only for values of CO₂ concentration below 400 ppm. At current solar input values, Snowball states appear only at or below 100 ppm.

Thus, we found: a lower solar output is an essential component of the transition to Snowball; the presence of land vegetation is crucial and reduces the probability of entering a Snowball state; a low CO₂ concentration was not needed for triggering a Snowball in bare Rodinia-like conditions and reduced solar output; current solar luminosity does not allow Snowball states, even for equatorial continents, unless continental albedo is that of granite and CO₂ concentration is 100 ppm or less. [Abridged]

Erica Bisesi, Giuseppe Murante, Antonello Provenzale, Jost von Hardenberg, Michele Maris, Laura Silva

Comments: Accepted for publication in the International Journal of Astrobiology 13 pages, 3 figures, 1 table
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Geophysics (physics.geo-ph)
MSC classes: 86A08
Cite as: arXiv:2603.25321 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2603.25321v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.25321
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Submission history
From: Erica Bisesi
[v1] Thu, 26 Mar 2026 11:09:30 UTC (569 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.25321
Astrobiology,