Iron Cycling
Iron Cycling - Related Videos
08:45
Quantitating Iron Transport Across the Mouse Placenta In Vivo Using Nonradioactive Iron Isotopes
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Cited by 3 •
2022
This article demonstrates how to prepare and administer transferrin-bound nonradioactive isotopic iron for studies of iron transport in mouse pregnancy. The approach for quantifying isotopic iron in fetoplacental compartments is also described.
03:06
Culturing Mycobacterium tuberculosis Under Iron-Limited Conditions
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2025
Source: Gupta, S., et al. Isolation and Characterization of Extracellular Vesicles Produced by Iron-limited Mycobacteria. J. Vis. Exp. (2019)This video demonstrates the procedure for culturing Mycobacterium tuberculosis under iron-limited conditions to induce iron stress and promote the secretion of siderophores that support bacterial survival.
06:37
Staphylococcus aureus Growth using Human Hemoglobin as an Iron Source
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Cited by 31 •
2013
Here we describe a growth assay for Staphylococcus aureus using hemoglobin as the sole source of available nutrient iron. This assay establishes the role of bacterial factors involved in hemoglobin-derived iron acquisition.
00:54
What are Biogeochemical Cycles?
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2019
The most common elements in organic molecules, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus, are only available in the ecosystem in limited amounts. Therefore, these nutrients must be recycled through both biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem, in processes generally called biogeochemical cycles. Biogeochemical Cycles and Decomposition The matter that makes up living organisms, like water, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorous, exist in limited quantities within the...
01:00
The Water Cycle
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2019
The Earth’s hydrosphere includes all of the areas where the storage and movement of water occurs. Since water is the basis of all living processes, the cycling of water is extremely important to ecosystem dynamics. The water cycle begins as the sun warms surface water on the land and in oceans, causing it to evaporate and enter the atmosphere as vapor. The water vapor condenses into clouds and eventually falls as precipitation in the form of rain, snow or hail. After falling back to the...
FAQs
Oxygen availability shifts iron between reduced ferrous and oxidized ferric forms through redox reactions. Under changing oxygen conditions, iron may become more dissolved, precipitate into minerals, or bind to existing mineral surfaces. These transformations influence how readily organisms and other environmental components can access iron, making oxygen conditions a major control on ecosystem nutrient dynamics.
Microbial activity influences the redox transformations that convert iron between ferrous and ferric forms. By affecting these reactions, microorganisms help determine whether iron remains dissolved, forms precipitates, or becomes associated with minerals. This connection links iron cycling to microbial ecology and helps explain how biological activity can alter nutrient availability and chemical conditions in soils, sediments, and water.
pH and organic matter help control the chemical environment in which iron transformations occur. Along with oxygen, they influence whether iron dissolves, precipitates, or binds to minerals, thereby changing its mobility and availability. Considering these variables together is important because the same iron reservoir can behave differently as environmental conditions shift.
Investigations can compare iron behavior in soils, sediments, and aquatic environments while examining its reduced and oxidized forms. Researchers may relate observed changes to oxygen, pH, organic matter, and microbial activity, then consider whether iron is dissolved, precipitated, or mineral-bound. This approach connects chemical transformations with broader patterns in ecosystem function and nutrient dynamics.
Iron minerals can immobilize phosphorus or contribute to its release, so changes in iron chemistry can modify phosphorus dynamics. When iron shifts between dissolved and mineral-associated states, the capacity of minerals to retain phosphorus may also change. Studying this relationship helps explain how iron transformations influence nutrient availability in soils, sediments, and aquatic systems.
Organisms require iron for enzymes, electron transport, and metabolism, making its environmental availability biologically significant. Iron transformations also shape microbial habitats and interactions by changing chemical conditions and nutrient accessibility. In biology, this topic therefore connects cellular requirements with ecosystem processes, including microbial ecology, water quality, and nutrient dynamics in changing environments.