Part of a series on
Biogeochemical cycles
Water cycle Water cycle deep water cycle
Carbon cycle Global atmospheric terrestrial oceanic Sequestration carbon sink deep carbon cycle soil carbon mycorrhizal fungi Boreal forests
Nutrient cycle Hydrogen cycle Nitrogen cycle human impact nitrification nitrogen and lichens fixation assimilation Oxygen cycle Phosphorus cycle assimilation Sulfur cycle assimilation
Rock cycle Calcium cycle Silica cycle Carbonate–silicate cycle
Marine cycle Marine biogeochemical cycles Biological pump microbial loop viral shunt Calcareous ooze Siliceous ooze
Methane cycle Atmospheric methane Methane clathrate clathrate gun hypothesis Arctic methane emissions
Other cycles aluminum arsenic boron bromine cadmium chlorine chromium copper fluorine gold iodine iron lead lithium manganese mercury ozone–oxygen selenium vanadium zinc
Related topics Biogeochemistry geochemical cycle chemical cycling environmental chemistry Biosequestration Deep biosphere Ocean acidification acid rain Biogeochemical planetary boundaries
Research groups DAAC GEOTRACES IMBER NOBM SOLAS
Category
v t e

The hydrogen cycle consists of hydrogen exchanges between biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) sources and sinks of hydrogen-containing compounds.

Hydrogen (H) is the most abundant element in the universe.^[1] On Earth, common H-containing inorganic molecules include water (H₂O), hydrogen gas (H₂), hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), and ammonia (NH₃). Many organic compounds also contain H atoms, such as hydrocarbons and organic matter. Given the ubiquity of hydrogen atoms in inorganic and organic chemical compounds, the hydrogen cycle is focused on molecular hydrogen, H₂.

As a consequence of microbial metabolisms or naturally occurring rock-water interactions, hydrogen gas can be created. Other bacteria may then consume free H2, which may also be oxidised photochemically in the atmosphere or lost to space. Hydrogen is also thought to be an important reactant in pre-biotic chemistry and the early evolution of life on Earth, and potentially elsewhere in the Solar System.^[2]

Abiotic cycles

Sources

Abiotic sources of hydrogen gas include water-rock and photochemical reactions. Exothermic serpentinization reactions between water and olivine minerals produce H₂ in the marine or terrestrial subsurface.^[3][4] In the ocean, hydrothermal vents erupt magma and altered seawater fluids including abundant H₂, depending on the temperature regime and host rock composition.^[5][4] Molecular hydrogen can also be produced through photooxidation (via solar UV radiation) of some mineral species such as siderite in anoxic aqueous environments. This may have been an important process in the upper regions of early Earth's Archaean oceans.^[6]

Sinks

Because H₂ is the lightest element, atmospheric H₂ can readily be lost to space via Jeans escape, an irreversible process that drives Earth's net mass loss.^[7] Photolysis of heavier compounds not prone to escape, such as CH₄ or H₂O, can also liberate H₂ from the upper atmosphere and contribute to this process. Another major sink of free atmospheric H₂ is photochemical oxidation by hydroxyl radicals (•OH), which forms water.^{[citation needed]}

Anthropogenic sinks of H₂ include synthetic fuel production through the Fischer-Tropsch reaction and artificial nitrogen fixation through the Haber-Bosch process to produce nitrogen fertilizers.^{[citation needed]}

Biotic cycles

Many microbial metabolisms produce or consume H₂.

Production

Hydrogen is produced by hydrogenases and nitrogenases enzymes in many microorganisms, some of which are being studied for their potential for biofuel production.^[8][9] These H₂-metabolizing enzymes are found in all three domains of life, and out of known genomes over 30% of microbial taxa contain hydrogenase genes.^[10] Fermentation produces H₂ from organic matter as part of the anaerobic microbial food chain^[11] via light-dependent or light-independent pathways.^[8]

Consumption

Biological soil uptake is the dominant sink of atmospheric H₂.^[12] Both aerobic and anaerobic microbial metabolisms consume H₂ by oxidizing it in order to reduce other compounds during respiration. Aerobic H₂ oxidation is known as the Knallgas reaction.^[13]

Anaerobic H₂ oxidation often occurs during interspecies hydrogen transfer in which H₂ produced during fermentation is transferred to another organism, which uses the H₂ to reduce CO₂ to CH₄ or acetate, SO²⁻
₄ to H₂S, or Fe³⁺ to Fe²⁺. Interspecies hydrogen transfer keeps H₂ concentrations very low in most environments because fermentation becomes less thermodynamically favorable as the partial pressure of H₂ increases.^[11]

Relevance for the global climate

H₂ can interfere with the removal of methane from the atmosphere, a greenhouse gas. Typically, atmospheric CH₄ is oxidized by hydroxyl radicals (^•OH), but H₂ can also react with ^•OH to reduce it to H₂O.^[14]

1. CH₄ + ^•OH → ^•CH₃ + H₂O
2. H₂ + ^•OH → H^• + H₂O

Implications for astrobiology

Hydrothermal H₂ may have played a major role in pre-biotic chemistry.^[15] Production of H₂ by serpentinization supported formation of the reactants proposed in the iron-sulfur world origin of life hypothesis.^[16] The subsequent evolution of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis is hypothesized as one of the earliest metabolisms on Earth.^[17][2]

Serpentinization can occur on any planetary body with chondritic composition. The discovery of H₂ on other ocean worlds, such as Enceladus,^[18][19][20] suggests that similar processes are ongoing elsewhere in the Solar System, and potentially in other planetary systems as well.^[13]