TY - CHAP

T1 - Modeling biogenic weathering of rocks from soils of cold environments

AU - Lessovaia, Sofia N.

AU - Gerrits, Ruben

AU - Gorbushina, Anna A.

AU - Polekhovsky, Yury S.

AU - Dultz, Stefan

AU - Kopitsa, Gennady G.

N1 - Funding Information: The research is based on a senior research stay (S. Lessovaia) at FUB in 2016 supported by UAS. Authors thank Institute for Solid State Physics and Optics (Neutron Spectroscopy Department) of Hungarian Academy of Sciences for the possibility of carrying out a neutron experiment at the facility ?Yellow submarine? (reactor BRR, Budapest Neutron Centre, Hungary). Publisher Copyright: © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Morphologically simple and microbially dominated ecosystems termed “biofilms” have existed on Earth for a long period of biosphere evolution. A model biofilm combining one heterotroph and one phototroph component was used in a laboratory experiment to simulate biogenic weathering with two different specimens of basic rock samples from the soil profiles. The rocks fragments from the regions of cold environments of Eurasia, where abiotic physical processes, including rock disintegration initiated by freezing–thawing cycles, represent the most probable scenario of rock weathering, were subjected to biological colonization. The rock fragments were represented by dolerite and metagabbro amphibolites. Polished sections of the rock samples were inoculated with the model microbiological consortium of the oligotrophic fungus and the phototrophic cyanobacteria (biofilm). After 3 month runtime of the experiment the progress of rock weathering was derived from the growth of the biofilm on the rock surfaces. The model biofilm visualization on the rock surface of polished sections illustrated their stronger development namely on dolerite in comparison with metagabbro amphibolite. The findings confirmed the higher sensitivity of dolerite to biogenic weathering due to (i) mineral association, in which quartz was absent and (ii) porosity providing higher specific surface area for biotic—abiotic interaction influenced by the occurrence of micro-porosity in the rock.

AB - Morphologically simple and microbially dominated ecosystems termed “biofilms” have existed on Earth for a long period of biosphere evolution. A model biofilm combining one heterotroph and one phototroph component was used in a laboratory experiment to simulate biogenic weathering with two different specimens of basic rock samples from the soil profiles. The rocks fragments from the regions of cold environments of Eurasia, where abiotic physical processes, including rock disintegration initiated by freezing–thawing cycles, represent the most probable scenario of rock weathering, were subjected to biological colonization. The rock fragments were represented by dolerite and metagabbro amphibolites. Polished sections of the rock samples were inoculated with the model microbiological consortium of the oligotrophic fungus and the phototrophic cyanobacteria (biofilm). After 3 month runtime of the experiment the progress of rock weathering was derived from the growth of the biofilm on the rock surfaces. The model biofilm visualization on the rock surface of polished sections illustrated their stronger development namely on dolerite in comparison with metagabbro amphibolite. The findings confirmed the higher sensitivity of dolerite to biogenic weathering due to (i) mineral association, in which quartz was absent and (ii) porosity providing higher specific surface area for biotic—abiotic interaction influenced by the occurrence of micro-porosity in the rock.

KW - Biofilm formation

KW - Biogenic weathering

KW - Fractal structure

KW - Internal pores

KW - Rock leaching

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072081223&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-21614-6_27

DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-21614-6_27

M3 - Chapter

AN - SCOPUS:85072081223

T3 - Lecture Notes in Earth System Sciences

SP - 501

EP - 515

BT - Lecture Notes in Earth System Sciences

PB - Springer Nature

ER -