Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34140576›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2021

Correlative Microscopy: a tool for understanding soil weathering in modern analogues of early terrestrial biospheres.

R L Mitchell, P Davies, P Kenrick, T Volkenandt, C Pleydell-Pearce, R Johnston

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
2.0field-weighted citation impact, top 14% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

R L MitchellAdvanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) Facility, College of Engineering, Bay Campus, Swansea University, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK. r.mitchell@sheffield.ac.uk.
P DaviesAdvanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) Facility, College of Engineering, Bay Campus, Swansea University, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK.
P KenrickEarth Sciences Department, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
T VolkenandtCarl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH, Carl-Zeiss-Straße 22, 73447, Oberkochen, Germany.
C Pleydell-PearceAdvanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) Facility, College of Engineering, Bay Campus, Swansea University, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK.
R JohnstonAdvanced Imaging of Materials (AIM) Facility, College of Engineering, Bay Campus, Swansea University, Swansea, SA1 8EN, UK. r.johnston@swansea.ac.uk.
Swansea University · GBCarl Zeiss (Germany) · DENatural History Museum · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Correlative imaging provides a method of investigating complex systems by combining analytical (chemistry) and imaging (tomography) information across dimensions (2D-3D) and scales (centimetres-nanometres). We studied weathering processes in a modern cryptogamic ground cover from Iceland, containing early colonizing, and evolutionary ancient, communities of mosses, lichens, fungi, and bacteria. Targeted multi-scale X-ray Microscopy of a grain in-situ within a soil core revealed networks of surficial and internal features (tunnels) originating from organic-rich surface holes. Further targeted 2D grain characterisation by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), following an intermediate manual correlative preparation step, revealed Fe-rich nodules within the tunnels. Finally, nanotomographic imaging by focussed ion beam microscopy (FIB-SEM) revealed coccoid and filamentous-like structures within subsurface tunnels, as well as accumulations of Fe and S in grain surface crusts, which may represent a biological rock varnish/glaze. We attribute these features to biological processes. This work highlights the advantages and novelty of the correlative imaging approach, across scales, dimensions, and modes, to investigate biological weathering processes. Further, we demonstrate correlative microscopy as a means of identifying fingerprints of biological communities, which could be used in the geologic rock record and on extra-terrestrial bodies.

Identifiers

PMID34140576
PMCPMC8211647
OpenAlexW3137327728

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.