I’ll be conducting a literature search regarding GCXGC worthy geology subjects. My goal is to do a little science on the cheap by using the Merced formation, and by looking at organics (or whatever I find fruitful), and exploring interesting problems about climates and ecosystems.

I’ll use the ‘biogeochemistry’ category to file excerpts.

Here’s a brief note from the Max Planck institute’s Biogeochemistry Department page (search terms in Google were GCXCG):

Plants may act both as sources and sinks of atmospheric trace gases. Previous studies have shown that carbonyl sulfide (COS) is taken up by plants together with CO2 and processed in the plants by the enzymes responsible for CO2 assimilation. This uptake represents a major sink for this compound, which on the other hand plays an important role as a source of sulfur-containing (sulfate) aerosols to the stratosphere. Current projects include a study of the emission of non-methane hydrocarbons by plants in Mediterranean ecosystems, the investigation of organic acid production and consumption by plants, and research on the emission of sulfur compounds by plants, algae, and lichens.

Vegetation fires are an important determinant in the ecology of many terrestrial systems, e.g. the North American boreal forest, the California chaparral, and the African savanna. Professor Andreae’s groups are conducting studies on the role of fire in ecology, climate and atmospheric chemistry. Much of this work is being done in the course of field campaigns in Amazonia, Africa, the boreal region (e.g., Siberia), and southeast Asia. It includes the determination of the gaseous and particulate emissions from vegetation fires, and measurements of the products of the photochemical processing of these emissions in the atmosphere, particularly pollutant species like ozone and nitrogen oxides. Land use change in the tropics, e.g., the conversion of rain forest and savanna into grazing and agricultural lands, has a strong influence on the emission of several trace gases from soils, e.g., N2O, NO, and CO. Professor Andreae’s groups are studying these effects by conducting flux measurements at selected sites in the tropics and in temperate regions. Click here for a review paper on Emission of trace gases and aerosols from biomass burning.