Extensive primary production promoted the recovery of the Ediacaran Shuram excursion.

Member IV of the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation records the recovery from the most negative carbon isotope excursion in Earth history. However, the main biogeochemical controls that ultimately drove this recovery have yet to be elucidated. Here, we report new carbon and nitrogen isotope and concentration data from the Nanhua Basin (South China), where δC values of carbonates (δC) rise from - 7‰ to -1‰ and δN values decrease from +5.