I found this fascinating musing of yours by asking if anyone had attempted to develop an estimate for the total amount of soil that has been produced since plant life began on earth. Wouldn’t this be an interesting number to obtain?
Thanks a lot for this really interesting read, which included some references that I didn't know and will now include in my lectures :-)
This paper pushed the date even further back to 3,48 Ga (Noffke et al., 2013, DOI 10.1089/ast.2013.1030)
One also very interesting aspect that I think fits well here is the role of microbes in soil formation on other planets. There are colleagues who think that biocrust organisms also played a role in pedogenesis on Mars (and I am inclined to agree with them):
- Joseph et al. (2020) DOI: 10.37720/jassr.03082020
There seems to be some research indicating that it was the formation of supercontinents that allowed soils to accumulate. (Nature, doi.org/k629). But as remarked by John Alroy of Macquarie University in Sydney, it only shows that less sediment corresponds to less fossils, "Less sediments means less fossils, which means less biodiversity for researchers to be able to sample."
I thought you might find this an interesting take on the matter.
I found this fascinating musing of yours by asking if anyone had attempted to develop an estimate for the total amount of soil that has been produced since plant life began on earth. Wouldn’t this be an interesting number to obtain?
Oh -- definitely yes! No idea how to do that, though....
Thanks a lot for this really interesting read, which included some references that I didn't know and will now include in my lectures :-)
This paper pushed the date even further back to 3,48 Ga (Noffke et al., 2013, DOI 10.1089/ast.2013.1030)
One also very interesting aspect that I think fits well here is the role of microbes in soil formation on other planets. There are colleagues who think that biocrust organisms also played a role in pedogenesis on Mars (and I am inclined to agree with them):
- Joseph et al. (2020) DOI: 10.37720/jassr.03082020
- Noffke (2015) DOI: 10.1089/ast.2014.1218
Cheers,
Vincent
Super, thank you!!
There seems to be some research indicating that it was the formation of supercontinents that allowed soils to accumulate. (Nature, doi.org/k629). But as remarked by John Alroy of Macquarie University in Sydney, it only shows that less sediment corresponds to less fossils, "Less sediments means less fossils, which means less biodiversity for researchers to be able to sample."
I thought you might find this an interesting take on the matter.
Super cool, thank you!!
More than welcome ☺️