Mineral carbon pump in the Earth system.

Xiao, Ke-Qing; Zhao, Mingyu; Moore, Oliver; Zhao, Yao; Li, Xin-Nan; Woulds, Clare; Babakhani, Peyman; Mills, Benjamin J W; Homoky, William B; Johnson, Karen; Tagliabue, Alessandro; Liang, Chao; Zhu, Yong-Guan; Peacock, Caroline

Abstract

The balance between the degradation and preservation of organic carbon (OC) is vital for the modulation of atmospheric CO2 and O2 in the Earth system, which regulates short-term climate as well as oxygenation of the early Earth. The mineral carbon pump (MnCP) was recently proposed to describe how soil minerals enhance the persistence and accumulation of OC, where interactions with minerals stabilize labile OC against microbial degradation (including via sorption, occlusion, aggregation, geopolymerization, and redox reactions).1 Given the widespread occurrence of metal (oxyhydr)oxides and clay minerals in terrestrial and marine environments and building on recent progress in mineral-OC interactions, we suggest that the MnCP occurs across the Earth system, where it plays a key role in OC preservation and hence the global carbon and oxygen cycles (Figure 1).

Citation

Xiao, K.-Q., Zhao, M., Moore, O., Zhao, Y., Li, X.-N., Woulds, C., Babakhani, P., Mills, B. J. W., Homoky, W. B., Johnson, K., Tagliabue, A., Liang, C., Zhu, Y.-G., & Peacock, C. (2025). Mineral carbon pump in the Earth system. Innovation, 6(1), Article 100737. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2024.100737

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 15, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Nov 19, 2024
• Publication Date: Jan 6, 2025
• Deposit Date: Feb 18, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 19, 2025
• Journal: Innovation
• Print ISSN: 1447-9338
• Electronic ISSN: 2204-0226
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 100737
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xinn.2024.100737
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3487181