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Rebecca Pickering

Rebecca Pickering

Postdoctoral fellow

Rebecca Pickering

Did Algae Eat All the Silica in the World’s Oceans?

Author

  • Rebecca Pickering
  • Kristin Doering

Summary, in English

Silicon is a crucial nutrient that can join with the element oxygen to form a substance commonly called silica. Silica, commonly known as glass, is found in rocks in the Earth’s crust and dissolves into the oceans, where organisms like algae and sponges use it to build their glassy skeletons. This process, called biosilicification, is extremely important in the silica cycle. Over time, organisms have changed the silica cycle. Today, because of these organisms, the oceans no longer contain much silica. However, when the Earth was younger and these organisms had not evolved yet, no biological processes affected silica in the oceans. The evolution of these oceanic organisms across time has removed silica from the oceans. In this article, we discuss how the evolution of silicon-using sponges, as well as tiny organisms called zooplankton and algae, have changed the amount of silica in the world’s oceans through geologic time.

Department/s

  • Lithosphere and Biosphere Science
  • Quaternary Sciences

Publishing year

2024-01-09

Language

English

Publication/Series

Frontiers for Young Minds

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Frontiers Media S. A.

Topic

  • Geochemistry

Keywords

  • silica
  • Diatoms
  • Geologic Time

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2296-6846