Calcification generates protons for nutrient and bicarbonate uptake

The biosphere's great carbonate deposits, from caliche soils to deep-sea carbonate oozes, precipitate largely as by-products of autotrophic nutrient acquisition physiologies. Protons constitute the critical link: Calcification generates protons, which plants and photosynthetic symbioses use to assimilate bicarbonate and nutrients. A calcium ATPase-based ''trans'' mechanism underlies most biological calcification. This permits high calcium carbonate supersaturations and rapid carbonate precipitation. The competitive advantages of calcification become especially apparent in light and nutrient-deficient alkaline environments. Calcareous plants often dominate the lower euphotic zone in both the benthos and the plankton. Geographically and seasonally, massive calcification concentrates in nutrient-deficient environments including alkaline soils, coral reefs, cyanobacterial mats and coccolithophorid blooms. Structural and defensive uses for calcareous skeletons are sometimes overrated.