Marine sediments provide crucial archives of past oceanographic and biogeochemical processes, retaining signatures of elemental cycling, redox conditions, and mineral formation. Microbial mediation plays a central role in controlling the biogeochemical cycles of major elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, which are essential in regulating global climate and nutrient dynamics. In addition, redox-sensitive elements (e.g., iron, manganese, rare earth elements) and non-redox-sensitive elements (e.g., calcium, magnesium) offer key insights into past depositional environments, precipitation mechanisms, and diagenetic alterations. Stable isotopes are established as vital proxies for reconstructing environmental variability, enabling the interpretation of climatic, tectonic, and biological events that have shaped ocean chemistry through Earth history. Deepening our understanding of these multi-scale interactions is fundamental for elucidating the mechanisms of element cycling and for assessing their implications on marine ecosystems and biogeochemical evolution.
This Research Topic seeks to advance the current state of knowledge on the processes governing elemental cycling in deep-sea sediments, with an emphasis on the interplay between mineralogical, geochemical, and microbial factors. By integrating approaches such as elemental analyses, mineralogical studies, and stable isotope techniques, we aim to unravel the mechanisms that regulate sedimentary geochemical cycles over both short and long timescales.
Recent technological and methodological advances in geochronology, sedimentology, and biological geochemistry have enabled more detailed reconstructions of past oceanic conditions and their drivers. This collection will highlight studies examining the responses of sedimentary element cycles to natural forcings (climate change, tectonic events, biological evolution) and anthropogenic impacts. The Research Topic encourages novel insights into geochemical proxies, the feedbacks between sedimentary processes and global biogeochemical cycles, and comprehensive syntheses integrating multiple lines of evidence. Through this effort, we aim to foster interdisciplinary discussion and establish a framework to better understand the temporal and mechanistic controls on element cycling in marine systems.
We invite original research, reviews, and methodological manuscripts that address (but are not limited to) the following themes:
Elemental enrichment patterns and mineralogical diversity in deep-sea sediments
Stable isotope variability and its role in deciphering marine biogeochemical cycles
Interactions between mineralogical transformations and biological processes in marine environments
Responses of marine sedimentary geochemistry to climatic, tectonic, and ecological perturbations
Temporal evolution and stratigraphic records of element cycling in marine sediments across geological epochs
Application and development of geochronological, sedimentological, and stratigraphic techniques in the study of element cycling and geochemical proxies
We especially encourage multidisciplinary approaches that bridge gaps between geochemistry, mineralogy, microbiology, and sedimentology, to provide comprehensive perspectives on the complexity of deep-sea sedimentary processes.
Article types and fees
This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:
Brief Research Report
Data Report
Editorial
FAIR² Data
FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
General Commentary
Hypothesis and Theory
Methods
Mini Review
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Article types
This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:
Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
