Lake sedimentary biogenic silica from diatoms constitutes a significant global sink for aluminium

Abstract

Diatoms play an important role in marine biogeochemical cycle of aluminum (Al), as dissolved Al is taken up by diatoms to build their siliceous frustules and is involved in the sedimentation of diatomaceous biogenic silica (BSi). The Al incorporation in BSi facilitates decreasing the dissolution of marine BSi and thus substantially influences the biochemical processes driven by diatoms, such as CO2 sequestration. However, the role of lake BSi in the terrestrial biochemical Al cycle has not been explored, though lakes represent the second-largest sink for BSi. By identifying the previously unexplored high Al/Si atomic ratios (up to 0.052) in lake BSi, here we show lake BSi is a large terrestrial Al pool due to its high Al content, and lake sedimentary BSi constitutes a significant global sink for Al, which is on the same magnitude as the Al sink in global oceans.

Modifying the thickness, pore size, and composition of diatom frustule in Craspedostauros sp. with Al3+ ions

“…The effect of Al 3+ on silica hydrolysis. The most studied effect of Al 3+ on diatom frustules is the reduction of the silica hydrolysis or dissolution rate 26 . Here, atomic absorption spectroscopy was employed to monitor the effect of Al 3+ on the dissolution of P. sp.…”

“…Incorporation of Al into the Thalassiosira pseudonana with a silicon to aluminum (Si:Al) ratio of 50:1 has resulted in catalytic activity 25 . Most notably, Al incorporation into frustules of several diatom species has shown a significantly enhanced hydrolysis resistance compared to their Al-free types 26,27 . To date, the internalization of Al into the diatom cells has been investigated from a biological perspective in which Al is distributed within the cell at different subcellular compounds such as granules, debris, organelles, and proteins 28,29 .…”

Archives of Environmental Protection

“…5). The source of silica in the bottom sediment of lakes are primarily dead diatom cells (Liu et al 2014, Liu et al 2019, and the increased silica content in deposits of Domowe Małe Lake is probably related to the inflow of rainwater, containing significant amounts of sand washed from the surface roads and streets. The organic matter in these sediments comprised 9.74 to 39.18% of dry mass (Fig.…”

Palaeoenvironmental applications of chromium and aluminium: Concerns on partitioning and early diagenetic remobilization

“…Aluminium and chromium find their use in understanding regional geochemical changes of the sediments (Alagarsamy & Zhang, 2010;Calvert, Pedersen, & Thunell, 1993), to discriminate between freshwater and marine sediments (Hofer, Wagreich, & Neuhuber, 2013;Potter, Shimp, & Witters, 1963), as an indicator of terrigenous contribution to marine sediments (Ishfaq, Pattan, Matta, & Banakar, 2013;Latimer & Filippelli, 2001;Martinez-Ruiz et al, 2015), as sensitive tracers of biological processes in the ocean and lakes (Liu et al, 2019;Singh, Chinni, & Singh, 2020;van Hulten et al, 2013), as normalizers to compensate for grain size and compositional changes for distinguishing polluted and unpolluted sediments (Alaoui et al, 2010;Birch, 2003;González-Macías, Schifter, Lluch-Cota, Méndez-Rodríguez, & Hernández-Vázquez, 2006;Ravichandran, Baskaran, Santschi, & Bianchi, 1995) and to identify sediment transport processes (Chen et al, 2013) and elemental mobility across the sediment-water interface in the coastal areas (Rigaud et al, 2013).…”