The effects of early diagenesis in various marine environments on the stable isotope records of environmental conditions and biogeochemical processes

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Background

Microbial respiration of organic matter, coupled to the reduction of a sequence of different electron acceptors with progressively decreasing free energy yield, is central in driving early diagenesis in marine sediments. These biogeochemical processes govern the oxidation state of the sediment and exert major controls on the chemical composition of pore water and the formation of authigenic minerals. Importantly, early diagenetic processes leave geochemical and isotopic signatures in the sediments, which may inform the conditions during early diagenesis and sometimes in the water column itself. Extracting this information on elemental cycling and microbial activity in a diversity of marine environments (from the continental shelf to the abyssal ocean) is possible only through a nuanced understanding of early diagenetic processes.



Among geochemical tools, stable isotopes have evolved to be a powerful probe of environmental conditions and biogeochemical processes. For more than sixty years, traditional stable isotope systems (e.g., sulfur and carbon isotopes) have significantly advanced our understanding of the co-evolution of life and the environment on Earth’s surface. Still, insight about the effects of marine diagenesis on these systems is continuously being deepened by targeted studies of modern environments and the application of novel analytical (e.g., in-situ measurements) and modeling techniques to new sedimentary archives. New isotopic tools (e.g., lithium, multiple sulfurs, chromium, iron, zinc, molybdenum, barium and uranium isotopes, carbonate clumped) have shown exciting prospects for exploring biogeochemical cycles and Earth’s surface environment, but our understanding of the geochemical behavior of these new isotopic systems during marine diageneses is still very limited. Knowledge obtained from modern environments will not only test the inferences currently being made on the basis of these isotopic systems but may also reveal novel applications for them. We seek to promote a nuanced understanding of the effects of diagenesis on isotope-based signatures in marine sediments, to establish approaches for the use of these signatures as robust means of reconstructing ancient sedimentary environments.



We encourage contributions from those applying geochemical tools (including but not limited to stable isotopes) to marine sediments to constrain biogeochemical processes and environmental conditions. Experimental, observational, and modeling studies are welcome. Studies of modern marine sediments are central to revealing the behavior of various isotopic systems during diagenesis, which is essential for the development of these systems as geochemical proxies. Concurrently, the application of well-understood geochemical proxies to ancient marine sedimentary rocks reveals the past operation of global biogeochemical cycles and the evolution of the Earth’s surface. Thus, we welcome studies on both modern and ancient sediments in this Research Topic.

Keywords: Redox Conditions, Stable Isotopes, Geochemistry, Biogeochemical Process, Early Diagenesis, Authigenic Mineral; Marine Sediments; Continental Shelf; Deep Sea

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.

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