Biogeochemical processes in soils can control major and trace nutrient availability to plants that can significantly influence terrestrial carbon cycling.  Improved mechanistic understanding of processes at the molecular scale can provide useful insights for interpreting biogeochemical cycles at much larger scales. Dissolution of iron oxides in soils can dictate the bioavailability of iron to plants. The efficacy of iron acquisition by plants can constrain the role of vegetation as a carbon sink and has significant implications for agriculture. Under iron-deficient conditions, plant roots are known to exude a plethora of compounds, including both ligands and reducing agents. Continuously stirred-tank reactors were used to quantify the effects of biogenic reductants and ligands in isolation and in combination on iron oxide dissolution rates. Experiments were performed with pure goethite and with an aluminum-substituted goethite, which is representative of many natural iron oxides and can have different rates of reductive and ligand-controlled dissolution.

Synergistic effects of reduction and ligand controlled dissolution on iron bioavailability to plants

247th National Meeting (2014)

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