WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND: TODAY’S ENVIRONMENTAL BIOGEOCHEMISTRY

It can be said that biogeochemistry became subdiscipline of geology when Vernadsky coined the term “biogeochemistry” in 1926, expanding the role of the biosphere in the study of geochemistry. Then the purpose was to integrate biology with the study of crop science, to solve important questions related to plant growth. Soon thereafter the field of biogeochemistry matured into a discipline dominated by oceanographers exploring the cycling of nutrients, metals, etc. through the Earth systems with the primary focus on large scale cycling and the oceans as the dominant source and sink. Isn’t it interesting that what began as a field focused on the study of fluxes in the terrestrial Earth systems quickly became a perceived discipline of oceanography? What goes around does indeed come around. New advances in analytical techniques and new multidisciplinary approaches to environmental science combined with the need to better understand the cycling of pollutants and toxicants in terrestrial environments has led to significant advances in our understanding of the Earth systems and biogeochemical processes controlling the fluxes metals, nutrients, etc. This special session on Environmental Biogeochemistry will include the presentation of cutting-edge research centered on the multidisciplinary study of biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial environments.