The purpose of this book was to generalize the essential facts and ideas
about biogeochemical cycles and the mass distribution of chemical elements in the world’s land biosphere. The reason for this endeavour is undoubtedly because the predominant mass of the Earth’s living organisms is confined to land. The land is also the habitat of humanity, and it is the land that has had to sustain the onus and odium of humanity’s productive activities. The study of biogeochemical processes that occur on land is therefore an important issue.
The land, to a first approximation, is one of the two general blocks of the
biosphere (the other is the ocean). For this reason, the overall estimated mass of the elements in biogeochemical cycles on land provides a basis for estimating the material balance on a planetary scale. A more detailed approach show that the rate of biogeochemical processes and the migrating mass is strongly susceptible to hydrothermal conditions on the Earth’s surface and several other factors. In view of this, the emphasis is on the features of biogeochemical cycles in the major natural zones and, particularly, at the land-ocean interface where the cyclic mass exchange processes are subject to the enormous power of the ocean.
This book is to a certain extent a summary of the author’s experience and experimental biogeochemical material collected in the tundra, taiga, steppes and deserts of Eurasia, in the tropics of Africa and on islands in the Indian and Arctic oceans.
Translated from the Russian by B.V. Rassadin
Translation edited by Hansford T. Shacklette
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Contents
Preface 9
Introduction 10
1. Terrestrial Living Matter: Composition and Biogeochemical Dynamics 23
1.1. Composition of Living Matter 23
1.2. Minor, or Trace, Elements 29
1.3. Biological Cycle of Chemical Elements 33
1.4. Extent of Biological Uptake 36
1.5. Natural Biogeochemical Anomalies 40
2. Earth’s Crust as a Factor in the Chemical Composition of Living Matter 47
2.1. Earth’s Crust Composition: Conceptual Survey 47
2.2. Relative Abundance of Chemical Elements in the Earth’s Crust 49
2.3. Forms for Occurrence of Chemical Elements in the Earth’s Crust 53
2.4. Characterization of Chemical Element Distributions in the Earth’s Crust 56
3. Biogeochemistry of Atmosphere and Natural Waters of Land 61
3.1. Biogeochemical Evolution of Atmospheric Composition and the Gas Mass Exchange 61
3.2. Geochemistry and Biogeochemistry of Aerosols 70
3.3. Wash-out and Transfer of Water-Soluble Forms of Chemical Elements in Troposphere 82
3.4. Composition of Terrestrial Surface Waters in Relation to Biogeochemical Processes 89
4. Biogeochemistry of Pedosphere 105
4.1. Soil and Pedosphere 105
4.2. Pedosphere as a Regulator of Carbon-Oxygen Metabolism in Biosphere 108
4.3. Organic Matter of the Pedosphere 114
4.4. Mineral Matter of Soil and Its Biogeochemical Transformation 127
4.5. Distribution of Trace Elements in Pedosphere 132
4.6. Epochal Relicts of Ancient Soil Formation 142
4.7. Equilibria in Biolatent Soil System 145
5. Global Biogeochemical Cycles and Distribution of Chemical Elements in the Biosphere of the World’s Land 153
5.1. Global Mass Exchange Cycles for Sodium and Chlorine 156
5.2. Cycles and Mass Distribution for Elements Supplied to the Biosphere Through Outgassing. Global Carbon Cycle 160
5.3. Global Sulfur Cycle 175
5.4. Global Nitrogen Cycle 184
5.5. General Characterization of Cycles and Mass Distribution of Outgassed Elements 192
6. Biospheric Cycles of Elements Mobilized from the Earth’s Crust 195
6.1. Global Calcium Cycle 195
6.2. Global Potassium Cycle 197
6.3. Global Silicon Cycle 199
6.4. Global Phosphorus Cycle 200
6.5. Global Cycles for Heavy Metals 206
6.6. Global Lead Cycle 206
6.7. Global Zinc Cycle 211
6.8. General Characterization of Cycles and Metal Distribution 216
7. Problems in the Organization of the World’s Land Biosphere 221
7.1. Geochemical Inhomogeneity of the World’s Land Biosphere 221
7.2. Intensity of Biogeochemical Processes on the World’s Land 226
7.3. Elementary Landscape (Elementary Ecogeosystem) as a Basic Chorologic Unit of the World’s Land Biosphere 229
8. Biogeochemistry of Polar Zone 235
8.1. Biogeochemistry of Arctic Landscapes 235
8.2. Biogeochemistry of Boreal and Subboreal Forests 249
8.3. Biological Cycle of Elements in Forest Communities 249
8.4. Biogeochemical Characterization of the Soils of Boreal Forest Zone 263
9. Biogeochemistry of Extratropical Steppes and Deserts 273
9.1. Biological Cycle of Elements in Arid Vegetable Communities 273
9.2. Biological Cycle in Extra-arid Deserts 280
9.3. Specificity of Soil Biogeochemistry in Arid Landscapes 286
9.4. Biogeochemical Processes in Relation to Aqueous and Atmospheric Migration of Elements 289
10. Biogeochemistry of Tropical Land 293
10.1. Biological Cycle of Chemical Elements in the Tropics 293
10.2. Biogeochemical Characterization of Tropical Soils 301
10.3. The Mangrove Biogeochemistry 305
11. Specific Features in the Biogeochemistry of Sea Islands 311
11.1. Salt Mass Transfer and Role of Bird Colonies 311
11.2. Atmospheric Delivery of Heavy Metals to the Ecogeosystems of Islands 317
12. Anthropogenic Deformation of Natural Biogeochemical Cycles 325
12.1. Human Society as a Factor in the Transformation of the Biosphere 325
12.2. Global and Regional Biogeochemical Problems 326
12.3. Local Anthropogenic Biogeochemical Anomalies of Heavy Metals 334
Literature Sources 345
Index 357
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