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Calcium Isotopes as Tracers of Biogeochemical Processes

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Handbook of Environmental Isotope Geochemistry

Part of the book series: Advances in Isotope Geochemistry ((ADISOTOPE))

Abstract

The prevalence of calcium as a major cation in surface and oceanic environments, the necessity of calcium in the functioning of living cells and bone growth, and the large spread in mass between calcium isotopes all suggest that calcium isotope biogeochemistry can be an important avenue of insight into past and present biogeochemical cycling processes. In the following chapter, we review the main areas of research where Ca isotope studies have been pursued and detail recent research results in biogeochemical applications. In marine environments, biogenic fractionation of Ca isotopes during biomineralization produces predictable offsets in some organisms, which facilitate the reconstruction of seawater δ44/40Ca over geologic timescales. In terrestrial studies, observed Ca isotope fractionation between soil and various components of vegetation enables the construction of a local Ca budget and provides a partial explanation for the scale of Ca isotopic variability within a single watershed. The research reviewed in this chapter provides a foundation for future investigations into the macro- and microscopic processes and biochemical pathways dictating the distribution of this essential nutrient using stable Ca isotope ratios.

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Acknowledgements

Research on the biogeochemistry of Ca isotopes by the authors has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF EAR-9526997; NSF EAR-9909639; NSF EAR-0838168), a NASA Astrobiology Institute grant (BioMARS; NAI02-0024-0006), and by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DEAC02-05CH11231 to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Laura C. Nielsen, Jennifer L. Druhan, Wenbo Yang & Donald J. DePaolo

  2. Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Laura C. Nielsen, Jennifer L. Druhan, Wenbo Yang, Shaun T. Brown & Donald J. DePaolo

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  1. Laura C. Nielsen
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  2. Jennifer L. Druhan
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Correspondence to Laura C. Nielsen .

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  1. Dept. Geology, Wayne State University, Detroit, 48202, Michigan, USA

    Mark Baskaran

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Nielsen, L.C., Druhan, J.L., Yang, W., Brown, S.T., DePaolo, D.J. (2012). Calcium Isotopes as Tracers of Biogeochemical Processes. In: Baskaran, M. (eds) Handbook of Environmental Isotope Geochemistry. Advances in Isotope Geochemistry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-10637-8_7

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