P45. Biominerals and environmental mineralogy

Biominerals in recent decades have received growing interest from a large interdisciplinary scientific community. Biominerals play a pivotal role in biogeochemical cycle of elements in the geological record. Thus, understanding (bio)mineralization processes in many different environments allows us to have a deep knowledge of natural risk, of the changes related to anthropic activities, of possible environmental resilience to such changes, and to provide tools for the risk assessment. Moreover, investigating (bio)minerals allows the development of technologies for environmental sustainability, and offers diverse and fairly numerous examples to devise useful biobased materials.
This session is intended to strengthen the collaborative interaction among environmental mineralogists and is open to the whole scientific community interested in biominerals, sustainability and related technology development. The session acknowledges studies on biominerals at the molecular scale, the interface between minerals and organisms, the kinetics of (bio)mineral growth, communities of microbial and other organisms that individually or collectively drive biomineral processes. Moreover, this session invites contributions on minerals and their synthetic analogues relevant to the environment, biobased-environmental-technologies such as wetland systems, waste and water treatment, bio-metallurgy. Finally, investigations on biominerals relevant to health are also welcome.

The session will host a Key note contribution by Giovanni Birarda, from Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, who will speak about Biominerals and Environment: Advances in infrared spectroscopic investigations at micro and nano scale.