The Silicon Cycle

Silicon is among the most abundant elements on earth. It plays a key but largely unappreciated role in many biogeochemical processes, including those that regulate climate and undergird marine food webs.



The Silicon Cycle is the first book in more than 20 years to present a comprehensive overview of the silicon cycle and issues associated with it. The book summarizes the major outcomes of the project Land-Ocean Interactions: Silica Cycle, initiated by the Scientific Community on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). It tracks the pathway of silicon from land to sea and discusses its biotic and abiotic modifications in transit as well as its cycling in the coastal seas. Natural geological processes in combination with atmospheric and hydrological processes are discussed, as well as human perturbations of the natural controls of the silicon cycle.





"The Silicon Cycle is a unique and important volume. There is nothing else like it currently. It addresses authoritatively the growing interest in the role that Si plays in controlling other biogeochemical cycles . . . I will use this as both a research reference and a teaching tool."---Jonathan Cole, Institute for Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY "The authors in The Silicon Cycle are leading researchers in the field of silicon geochemistry, which makes for a great volume . . . The book deals not only with issues such as changes in the riverine dissolved silicate flux, but also with global warming and the associated changes in ocean circulation, which may have an enormous impact on the silicon cycle. The authors have a good balance in their discussions of silicon cycling in terrestrial and marine environments."---Dave Demaster, North Carolina State University