Carbon in the Deep Biosphere: Forms, Fates, and Biogeochemical Cycling

Author(s)

Susan Q. Lang, University of South Carolina - ColumbiaFollow
Magdalena R. Osburn, Northwestern UniversityFollow
Andrew D. Steen, University of Tennessee, KnoxvilleFollow

ORCID iD

Susan Lang: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0873-6082

Document Type

Book Chapter

Abstract

Building on the synthesis of carbon reservoirs in Earth's subsurface, this chapter focuses on the forms, cycling, and fate of the carbon supporting microbial life in the terrestrial and marine subsurface. As the subsurface is estimated to host a vast reservoir of life on Earth, identifying the carbon compounds that life uses for energy and growth is key to understanding ecosystem functioning in the past and at present, and also for extrapolating these findings to the search for life in the universe. This chapter highlights advances in quantifying small carbon compounds, measuring rates of carbon turnover, and the fate of carbon in the deep biosphere.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108677950

Publication Info

Postprint version. Published in Deep Carbon: Past to Present, ed. B. Orcutt, I. Daniel, R. Dasgupta, 2019, pages 480-523.

Rights

© Cambridge University Press 2020

An online version of this work published by Cambridge University Press is available under a under a Creative Commons Open Access license CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0.

APA Citation

Lang, S., Osburn, M., & Steen, A. (2019). Carbon in the Deep Biosphere: Forms, Fates, and Biogeochemical Cycling. In B. Orcutt, I. Daniel, & R. Dasgupta (Eds.), Deep Carbon: Past to Present (pp. 480-523). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108677950