Tong Liu paper accepted by Nature Communications
This work identifies mineral photocatalysis as a pathway mediating Fe(II)/Fe(III) cycling in the euphotic zone and has been selected for the Nature Communications Earth science Editors’ Highlights.
Authors: Tong Liu, Hongrui Ding, Anhuai Lu, Lingzi Meng, Xiao Ge, Ying Liu, Fangchao Zhu, Shuo Yu, Qunjian Yin, Yan Li, Changqiu Wang, Juan Liu, Song Jin
Journal: Nature Communications, 2026
The Editors’ Highlights page is curated by the editors of Nature Communications to showcase 50 recent representative papers in Earth science. This article was selected for the collection by editor Joy Buongiorno.
The marine iron cycle is fast and dynamic, partly fueled by vast particulate iron inputs, but the mechanisms that activate this reservoir remain unresolved. This study shows that mineral photocatalysis provides an important abiotic pathway for Fe(II) production in sunlit waters.
Laboratory experiments using synthetic iron oxides and anatase in artificial seawater demonstrate that anatase (TiO2) drives rapid Fe(III)-to-Fe(II) cycling at rates up to fourfold higher than current model assumptions. The study proposes that mineral photocatalysis helps explain the persistence of Fe(II) in sunlit waters as a high-flux steady state of photochemical production coupled with biological uptake.
