Zinc cycle

Zinc-containing minerals in the Earth's crust exist primarily as sulfides, such as sphalerite and wurtzite, and carbonates such as smithsonite.

Zinc is a marine micronutrient that tends to be in higher concentration in the deep ocean and is transformed into organic zinc which enters the food chain by diatom blooms during upwelling events in the Southern Ocean.

[2] Zinc settles to the ocean floor and is returned to the mantle from the subduction of marine sediments.

Major global events such as the formation or breakup of supercontinents and periods of significant volcanic activity tend to create new deposits of zinc in the lithosphere.

In between these events, zinc tends to cycle through the biosphere at a lower rate of change.

Zinc fluxes between the lithosphere and biosphere, through basins in soil, biomass, water systems, and industry. [ 1 ] Estimated fluxes are shown as labeled arrows in Gg/year.