Biogeochemical Cycling

The exchange of material between the living and nonliving components of

the biosphere. The biogeochemical cycling of nutrients involves the physical
transportation and its chemical and biochemical transformation ‘ (Jjemba
2004).

The cycle approach is useful in that it provides an overview of fluxes,

reservoirs, and residence times. It also identifies gaps in knowledge.
However, no information on what happens in a reservoir, on spatial
resolution, or on other details is provided.
 Elements or compounds do not exist or cycle individually but rather always
interact and overlap with other geochemical cycles.
 Biogeochemical cycles are also fundamental drivers of local, regional and global air
pollution, and climate change
 Most important cycles:
C, O, N, P, S (and Fe)
BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES TYPES

 From the standpoint of the earth as a whole, Biogeochemical Cycles

fall into two groups:

 Perfect (= gaseous) cycles

cycles (nitrogen, carbon, oxygen) which have a large gaseous, rather easily
exchangeable, reservoir which makes them less likely to get out of balance

 Imperfect (= sedimentary) cycles

cycles (calcium, phosphorus, iron) which involve the more earthbound
elements and large portions of the supply may become unavailable for
long periods of time, thus disturbing the cycle
Carbon cycle

 Carbon pools
 Much of the carbon on Earth is tied up inorganically in the form of carbonates (limestone
and dolomite) about 1022g
 Another great fraction is trapped as aged organic matter (Bitumen, coal, natural gas,
petroleum) about 1022g
 Unaged dead material 1018g
 Living biomass 1017g
 Carbon on the atmosphere 1017g
 The carbon cycle is generally broken down into 2 parts: C02, which is unreactive and
treated separately, and reactive carbon (CH4, CO, NMHC's).
 Importance: CH4 is a greenhouse gas
 CH4 , CO are important in O3.NMI-IC are a source of CO, which perturb background
chemistry elemental C (soot) is radiatively important and serves as a catalyst
Carbon Reservoirs

 A reservoir is a sink or source of an element such as carbon.

 There are various global reservoirs of carbon, some of which are immense in size and
some of which are relatively small.
 The largest carbon reservoir is carbonate rock found in Earth's sediments.
 This reservoir is four orders of magnitude larger than the carbonate reservoir found
in the ocean and six orders of magnitude larger than the carbon reservoir found as
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
 If one considers these three reservoirs, it is obvious that the carbon most available for
photosynthesis, which requires carbon dioxide, is in the smallest of the reservoirs, the
atmosphere. Therefore, it is the smallest reservoir that is most actively cycled.
 In fact, since global industrialization began in the late 1800s,humans have affected several of the smaller
carbon reservoirs. Utilization of fossil fuels (an example of a small, inactive carbon reservoir)and deforestation
(an example of a small, active carbon reservoir) are two activities that have reduced the amount of fixed organic
carbon in these reservoirs and added to the atmospheric carbon dioxide reservoir.

 The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide has not been as great as expected. This is because the reservoir of
carbonate found in the ocean acts as a buffer between the atmospheric and sediment carbon reservoirs through the
equilibrium equation
Thus, some of the excess carbon dioxide that has been released has been absorbed by the oceans.
However, there has still been a net efflux of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere of approximately 7 X 109
metric tons/year.
The problem with this imbalance is that because atmospheric carbon dioxide is a small carbon reservoir, the
result of a continued net efflux over the past 100 years or so has been a 28% increase in atmospheric
carbon dioxide from 0.026% to 0.033%.

A consequence of the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is that it contributes to global

warming through the greenhouse effect.
The greenhouse effect is caused by gases in the atmosphere that trap heat from the sun and cause Earth to
warm up. This effect is not solely due to carbon dioxide; other gases such as methane, Chloro-
FluoroCarbons (CFCs), and nitrous oxide contribute to the problem.
Carbon Fixation and Energy Flow
The ability to photosynthesize allows sunlight energy to be trapped and stored. In this process carbon
dioxide is fixed into organic matter .Photosynthetic organisms, also called primary producers, include
plants and microorganisms such as algae, cyanobacteria, some bacteria, and some protozoa.
The efficiency of sunlight trapping is very low; less than 0.1%of the
sunlight energy that hits Earth is actually utilized.
As the fixed sunlight energy moves up each level of the food chain, up to 90% or more of the trapped
energy is lost through respiration.
Despite this seemingly inefficient trapping, photoautotrophic primary producers support most of
the considerable ecosystems found on Earth. Productivity varies widely among different
ecosystems depending on the climate, the type of primary producer.
Carbon Respiration
Carbon dioxide that is fixed into organic compounds as a result of photoautotrophic activity is
available for consumption or respiration by animals and heterotrophic microorganisms.

The end products of respiration are carbon dioxide and new cell mass. An interesting question
to consider is the following:
if respiration were to stop, how long would it take for photosynthesis to use up all of the
carbon dioxide reservoir in the atmosphere? Based on estimates of global photosynthesis, it
has been estimated that it would take 30 to 300 years.
The carbon cycle, showing both aerobic and anaerobic contributions
The Role of Soil Microbes in Carbon Sequestration
Currently there is debate about how soil microbial activity may influence global warming (Knorr et ai,
2005; Rice, 2006).
Depending on the relative rates of microbial respiration versus photosynthetic activity, soils could
be either a source or sink for CO2, The estimated amount of carbon sequestered or stored in world
soil organic matter ranges from 1.1 to 1.6 X 1012 metric tons

This is more than twice the carbon in living vegetation (5.6 X 1011 metric tons) or in the atmosphere
(6.7 X 1011 metric tons) (Sundquist, 1993).
Hence, even relatively small changes in soil carbon storage could have a significant impact on the
global carbon balance In the last 7,800 years, the net carbon reservoir in the soil has decreased by
5.0 X 1010 metric tons largely due to conversion of land to agriculture (Lai, 2004).
It is estimated that some of this lost carbon could be recovered through strategic management
practices For example, agricultural practices that enhance crop productivity (CO2 uptake) while
decreasing microbial decomposition rates (CO2 release) could be optimized to maximize the
sequestration of carbon in the soil reservoir.

Such practices, which include conservation set-aside, reduced tillage, and increased crop
productivity have been estimated to account for the sequestration of 1.1 to 2.1 X 10 7 metric tons
carbon annually (Lokupitiva and Paustian, 2006).

However, global warming could also result in enhanced rates of microbial decomposition of the
carbon stored in the soil.
Downwelling
Downwelling (sinking of dense water) transfers cold and/or salty surface waters into the deep
interior of the oceans, and as a result, carbon is transferred as well.

Upwelling
Upwelling is just the opposite of downwelling, and the total transfer of carbon is a function of the
volume of water involved in this flow and the amount of carbon stored in the deep ocean reservoir.
Upwelling occurs in areas of the oceans where winds and surface currents diverge, moving the
surface waters away from a region; in response, deep waters rise up to fill the "void." Upwelling
occurs along the equator, where there is a strong divergence, and also along the margins of some
continents, such as the west coast of South America. In addition to carbon, this upwelling water
brings with it nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, making these waters highly productive.
Sedimentation
Some of the carbon, both organic and inorganic (i.e., calcium carbonate shells), produced by marine biota
and transferred to the deep oceans settles out onto the seafloor and accumulates there, eventually forming
sedimentary rocks .The magnitude of this flow is small — about 0.6 Gt C/yr — relative to the total amount
of carbon transferred by sinking from the surface waters — 10 Gt C/yr. The reason for this difference is
primarily because the deep waters of the oceans dissolve calcium carbonate shell materials; below about 4
km, the water is so corrosive that virtually no calcium carbonate material can accumulate on the seafloor.
In addition, some of the organic carbon is consumed by organisms living in the deep waters and within the
sedimentary material lining the seafloor. This consumption results in the release of CO 2 into the bottom
waters and thus decreases the amount of carbon that is removed from the ocean through sedimentation. It is
worth noting that the process of organic carbon consumption on the seafloor is another microbial process
and is very similar to the soil respiration flow described earlier. Since the microbes living on the seafloor
require oxygen to efficiently accomplish this task, the supply of oxygen to the seafloor by deep currents is
an important part of this process.
Volcanism and Metamorphism
When sedimentary rocks deposited on oceanic crust are subducted at a trench where two tectonic plates of Earth's
surface converge, they may melt or undergo metamorphism; in either case, the carbon stored in calcium carbonate —
limestone — is liberated in the form of CO2, which ultimately is released at the surface. The CO 2 may come out when
a volcano erupts, or it may slowly diffuse out from Earth's interior via hot springs, but in both cases, these processes
represent a transfer of carbon from the reservoir of sedimentary rocks to the atmosphere. The magnitude of this flow
is quite small, and is adjusted here to a value of 0.6 Gt C/yr in order to allow the model to exhibit a steady state. This
flow is defined as a constant in the model, although in reality, it varies according to the timing of large volcanic
eruptions. An extremely large volcanic eruption may emit carbon at a rate of around 0.2 Gt C/yr for a year or two,
creating a minor fluctuation.
Human Influences on the Global Carbon Cycle
Fossil Fuel Burning
Another pathway for carbon to move from the sedimentary rock reservoir to the atmosphere is through the burning
of fossil fuels by humans . Fossil fuels include petroleum, natural gas, and coal, all of which are produced by slow
transformation of organic carbon deposited in sedimentary rocks — essentially the fossilized remains of marine and
land plants. In general, this transformation takes many millions of years; most of the oil and gas we now extract
from sedimentary rocks is on the order of 70–100 million years old. New fosssil fuels take a very long time to form,
and we are using them up much much faster than they are being formed, meaning that if we keep using fossil fuels
at the rate we are today, we will run out! The run-out date depends on new discoveries and our ability to extract
fuels more efficiently by processes like fracking, but we will be close to running out by the end of this century
unless we figure out a way to tap into the huge reserves of gas hydrates trapped in oceanic sediments.