Biogeochemical cycles of elements - such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, boron, strontium, noble gases, trace elements - represent the pathways through which an element or groups of elements interact and move among the various reservoirs of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere and biosphere. Their characterization is critical to the reconstruction of the key processes that operate on the Earth System and drive its Global Changes, from the geologic past to the present.

Biogeochemical cycles at short temporal and spatial scales characterize the surface environments of the Earth System where elements flow from abiotic to biotic components and vice versa and are critical for the survival of living organisms. Each biogeochemical cycle can be thought of as having a reservoir - a larger, slow-moving, usually abiotic - and an exchange pool - a smaller but more active portion interested in the rapid exchange between the biotic and abiotic in an ecosystem.

Increasing the spatial and temporal scale of the cycles, we find the pathways of elements or groups of elements from the surface to deep crustal zones of the Earth that have driven, along with global-scale geodynamic cycles, the physical and chemical evolution of the Earth and have operated since the beginning of Earth's history.

The Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources is characterized by multidisciplinary studies and researches - geological, mineralogical, geochemical, isotopic, experimental and modeling - on BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES and the interactions between atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere and biosphere directly related to them, at spatial scales from nanometers to thousands of kilometers and time scales from milliseconds to billions of years. The research activities carried out within the line of research range from the study of the Earth Critical Zone, the zone between the top of the vegetation to the water table, in mountain and extreme environments, to the study of biotic/abiotic exchanges and interactions in lakes and soils, the study of fluid/rock interaction processes in marine environments, crust and mantle in different geodynamic environments including the study of hydrothermal, magmatic and metamorphic fossil and active systems, the study of mineral deposit formation, the study of marine and continental carbonate formation, the study of carbon fluxes in surface and deep environments.

Coordination: Chiara Boschi, (chiara.boschi(at)igg.cnr.it)