Remineralisation

In biogeochemistry, remineralisation (or remineralization) refers to the breakdown or transformation of organic matter (those molecules derived from a biological source) into its simplest inorganic forms.

[1] Remineralisation is normally viewed as it relates to the cycling of the major biologically important elements such as carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus.

The term is most commonly used in the medicinal and physiological fields, where it describes the development or redevelopment of mineralized structures in organisms such as teeth or bone.

Understanding the rates and dynamics of organic matter remineralization in a given system can help in determining how or why some ecosystems might be more productive than others.

[2] This redox chemistry is the basis for life in deep sea sediments and determines the obtainability of energy to organisms that live there.

From the water interface moving toward deeper sediments, the order of these acceptors is oxygen, nitrate, manganese, iron, and sulfate.

[3] Due to this quick depletion of O2 in the surface sediments, a majority of microbes use anaerobic pathways to metabolize other oxides such as manganese, iron, and sulfate.

In a water body, sediment seabed, or soil, the sorting of these chemical reactions with depth in order of energy provided is called a redox gradient.

Redox zonation refers to how the processes that transfer terminal electrons as a result of organic matter degradation vary depending on time and space.

[7] In oxic conditions, in which oxygen is readily available, aerobic respiration will be favored due to its high energy yield.

Biological activity in the photic zone of most water bodies tends to recycle material so well that only a small fraction of organic matter ever sinks out of that top photosynthetic layer.