Vortragsreihe WISSENSCHAFT MIT WIRKUNG: Does life drive rock weathering?

Seit 1871 gewährleistet die BAM Sicherheit in Technik und Chemie und schafft so Vertrauen in Innovationen und Zukunftstechnologien. Mit unserer Arbeit tragen wir dazu bei, den Wirtschaftsstandort Deutschland zu stärken und auf gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen wie die Energiewende oder den Klimawandel zu antworten.

Im Rahmen der Vortragsreihe „Wissenschaft mit Wirkung“ hat die BAM führende Köpfe aus der Wissenschaft eingeladen, um die Entwicklungen der BAM in den Themenfeldern und die Wirkung von Wissenschaft für die Gesellschaft gemeinsam zu beleuchten. Sie sind herzlich zur Teilnahme an den virtuellen Vorträgen eingeladen.

Besuchen Sie auch unsere Jubiläumswebsite

Vortrag am 4.11.2021

Prof. Friedhelm von Blanckenburg
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences / Freie Universität Berlin

Date	Thursday, 4 November 2021, 04:00 pm
Type of Event	Webinar
Topic	Does life drive rock weathering?
Presenter	Prof. Friedhelm von Blanckenburg Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences – Head of Section “Earth Surface Geochemistry” Professor of the Geochemistry of the Earth Surface, Freie Universität Berlin
Summary	to follow shortly
Language	Plants and the microbes that interact with their roots have developed a fantastic trading system. Microbes, mainly bacteria and specialized fungi directly or indirectly decompose minerals in rock and soil and to pass the obtained mineral nutrients, like phosphorus, to the roots of plants that thus satisfy their nutrient demand. In return, plants pass energy in the form of hydrocarbons to the below-ground microbiota. Using estimates of the resulting mineral decomposition rates a massive acceleration of mineral dissolution, called “weathering”, would be expected beneath higher plants. As geochemists we have developed the ability to test whether this is indeed the case in natural field conditions by isotope-based measurements of the chemical mass fluxes involved. Surprisingly, we find no acceleration of weathering along geographic gradients of increasing plant growth. Rather, we find that a sophisticated circular economy is in place: the lower nutrient availability in soil, and the higher the demand of a plant-essential element, the more are these elements recycled. It is fascinating to see how entire plant-microbial systems adapt to their environment. But rock weathering is mainly driven by geologic (relief) and climatic (runoff) forces.
Link-Registration	Webex
BAM Contact	Prof. Dr. Anna A. Gorbushina, anna.gorbushina[at]bam.de

This lecture ist part of the LECTURE SERIES Microbes and Environmental Chemistry 14.10. - 18.11.2021. Join us for a virtual trip around the world: on six Thursdays from 14 October to 18 November, always from 4 to 6pm. Six renowned international scientists will share their ground-breaking observations of processes on this planet. The spotlight is on interactions of living organisms and landscapes /materials as mediators of global change in all regions of the Earth.

Moderation

Prof. Anna A. Gorbushina, BAM & FU Departments of Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacy & Geosciences
Prof. Matthias Rillig, FU Department of Biology, Chemistry and Pharmacy
Prof. Esther Schwarzenbach, FU Department of Geosciences