Selenium cycle
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The selenium cycle is the movement and transformation of selenium among rocks, soils, water, the atmosphere, sediments, and organisms. Selenium is an essential trace nutrient for many animals but becomes toxic within a relatively narrow concentration range.
Weathering releases selenium from rocks and soils. Its mobility depends on oxidation state, acidity, organic matter, microbial activity, and whether it occurs as selenide, elemental selenium, selenite, or selenate.
Plants take up selenium and transfer it through food webs. Microorganisms reduce, oxidise, methylate, and volatilise selenium compounds, linking soils and water with the atmosphere.
Mining, irrigation drainage, coal combustion, agriculture, and industrial waste can concentrate selenium locally. Sediment burial and mineral formation store it, while erosion and changing redox conditions can release it again.
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- Source / publisher: Wikipedia
- URL type: WWW
- Credits: Wikipedia
- URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selenium_cycle