Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemistry, physics, geology, and biology processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment (including the biosphere, the cryosphere, the hydrosphere, the pedosphere, the atmosphere, and the lithosphere). In particular, biogeochemistry is the study of biogeochemical cycles, the cycles of such as carbon and nitrogen, and their interactions with and incorporation into life transported through earth scale biological systems in space and time. The field focuses on chemical cycles which are either driven by or influence biological activity. Particular emphasis is placed on the study of Carbon cycle, Nitrogen cycle, Oxygen cycle, Sulfur cycle, Iron cycle, and Phosphorus cycle cycles.
History
Early Greek
Early Greeks established the core idea of biogeochemistry that nature consists of cycles.
18th-19th centuries
Agricultural interest in 18th-century soil chemistry led to better understanding of nutrients and their connection to biochemical processes. This relationship between the cycles of organic life and their chemical products was further expanded upon by Dumas and Boussingault in a 1844 paper that is considered an important milestone in the development of biogeochemistry.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck first used the term
biosphere in 1802, and others continued to develop the concept throughout the 19th century.
Early climate research by scientists like
Charles Lyell,
John Tyndall, and
Joseph Fourier began to link
Glacial period,
weathering, and climate.
20th century
The founder of modern biogeochemistry was Vladimir Vernadsky, a
and
Ukraine scientist whose 1926 book
The Biosphere,
[Vladimir I. Vernadsky, 2007, Essays on Geochemistry & the Biosphere, tr. Olga Barash, Santa Fe, NM, Synergetic Press, (originally published in Russian in 1924)] in the tradition of
Mendeleev, formulated a physics of the Earth as a living whole.
Vernadsky distinguished three spheres, where a sphere was a concept similar to the concept of a
phase-space. He observed that each sphere had its own laws of
evolution, and that the higher spheres modified and dominated the lower:
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Abiotic sphere – all the non-living energy and material processes
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Biosphere – the life processes that live within the abiotic sphere
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Nöesis or noosphere – the sphere of human cognitive process
Human activities (e.g., agriculture and industry) modify the biosphere and abiotic sphere. In the contemporary environment, the amount of influence humans have on the other two spheres is comparable to a geological force (see Anthropocene).
The American limnology and geochemistry G. Evelyn Hutchinson is credited with outlining the broad scope and principles of this new field. More recently, the basic elements of the discipline of biogeochemistry were restated and popularized by the British scientist and writer, James Lovelock, under the label of the Gaia Hypothesis. Lovelock emphasized a concept that life processes regulate the Earth through feedback mechanisms to keep it habitable. The research of Manfred Schidlowski was concerned with the biochemistry of the Early Earth.[Manfred Schidlowski: ?via%3Dihub. In: Precambrian Research. Vol. 106, Issues 1-2, 1 February 2001, pages 117-134.]
Biogeochemical cycles
Biogeochemical cycles are the pathways by which chemical substances (are turned over or moved through) the biotic and the
abiotic compartments of
Earth. The biotic compartment is the
biosphere and the abiotic compartments are the
atmosphere,
hydrosphere and
lithosphere. There are biogeochemical cycles for chemical elements, such as for
calcium cycle,
carbon cycle,
hydrogen cycle,
mercury cycle,
nitrogen cycle,
oxygen cycle,
phosphorus cycle,
selenium cycle,
iron cycle and
sulfur cycle, as well as molecular cycles, such as for
water cycle and
silica cycle. There are also macroscopic cycles, such as the
rock cycle, and human-induced cycles for synthetic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In some cycles there are reservoirs where a substance can remain or be
sequestered for a long period of time.
[Moses, M. (2012) Biogeochemical cycles . Encyclopedia of Earth.][Fisher M. R. (Ed.) (2019) Environmental Biology, 3.2 Biogeochemical Cycles , OpenStax. .][ Biogeochemical Cycles , OpenStax, 9 May 2019. .]
Research
Biogeochemistry research groups exist in many universities around the world. Since this is a highly interdisciplinary field, these are situated within a wide range of host disciplines including: atmospheric sciences,
biology,
ecology,
geomicrobiology, environmental chemistry,
geology,
oceanography and
soil science. These are often bracketed into larger disciplines such as
earth science and environmental science.
Many researchers investigate the biogeochemical cycles of such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur, as well as their . The cycles of , such as the and the , are also studied. This research has obvious applications in the exploration of ore deposits and oil, and in the remediation of environmental pollution.
Some important research fields for biogeochemistry include:
Evolutionary Biogeochemistry
Evolutionary biogeochemistry is a branch of modern biogeochemistry that applies the study of biogeochemical cycles to the geologic history of the Earth. This field investigates the origin of biogeochemical cycles and how they have changed throughout the planet's history, specifically in relation to the evolution of life.
See also
Representative books and publications
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Vladimir I. Vernadsky, 2007, Essays on Geochemistry and the Biosphere, tr. Olga Barash, Santa Fe, NM, Synergetic Press, (originally published in Russian in 1924)
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Schlesinger, W. H. 1997. Biogeochemistry: An Analysis of Global Change, 2nd edition. Academic Press, San Diego, Calif. .
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Schlesinger, W. H., 2005. Biogeochemistry. Vol. 8 in: Treatise on Geochemistry. Elsevier Science.
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Vladimir N. Bashkin, 2002, Modern Biogeochemistry. Kluwer, .
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Samuel S. Butcher et al. (Eds.), 1992, Global Biogeochemical Cycles. Academic, .
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Susan M. Libes, 1992, Introduction to Marine Biogeochemistry. Wiley, .
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Dmitrii Malyuga, 1995, Biogeochemical Methods of Prospecting. Springer, .
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Global Biogeochemical Cycles[4]. A journal published by the American Geophysical Union.
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Woolman, T. A., & John, C. Y., 2013, An Analysis of the Use of Predictive Modeling with Business Intelligence Systems for Exploration of Precious Metals Using Biogeochemical Data. International Journal of Business Intelligence Research (IJBIR), 4(2), 39-53.v [5].
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Biogeochemistry. A journal published by Springer.
External links
