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Global Metabolism of Elements: Principles and Applications in Bioinorganic Chemistry - XI

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Ei-Ichiro Ochiai

Department of Chemistry, Juniata College, Huntingdon, PA 16652

J. Chem. Educ., 1997, 74 (8), p 926

DOI: 10.1021/ed074p926

Publication Date (Web): August 1, 1997

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

The biosphere is an open system and in contact with the environments: atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. Hence the elements in the environment could enter organisms. The organisms have to deal with them in order to maintain their integrity. Hence they metabolize (in the widest sense) the elements ingested. Geological processes move elements around at the global as well as local levels. The biosphere, as its members metabolize the elements, can thus contribute to the overall global geocycling of elements. A diagram is used to indicate several different manners of the contribution and their extents of contribution to the geoprocesses. This overall process incorporating the effects of the biosphere is termed here as "global metabolism" and is illustrated for iron, merucry and arsenic. Diagrams have been devised to illustrate the movements of elements through the biosphere. However, no geological process is incorporated in these three diagrams.