The Main Cause of Geophagy According to Extensive Studies on Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal

From the novel results of comprehensive geological–hydrobiogeochemical studies conducted on Olkhon Island (Lake Baikal), it follows that the phenomenon of geophagy among wild and domestic ungulates on the island is caused by the deficiency of light subgroup rare earth elements (LREE) in plant food a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inGeosciences (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 7; p. 211
Main Authors Panichev, Alexander M., Baranovskaya, Natalya V., Seryodkin, Ivan V., Chekryzhov, Igor Y., Soktoev, Bulat R., Ivanov, Vladimir V., Vakh, Elena A., Desyatova, Tatyana V., Lutsenko, Tatyana N., Popov, Nikita Y., Ruslan, Alexey V., Elovskiy, Evgeniy V., Vetoshkina, Alena V., Patrusheva, Olga V., Ostapenko, Dmitry S., Kholodov, Aleksei S., Golokhvast, Kirill S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.07.2023
Subjects
Animals
Carbonate rocks
Carbonates
Chemical elements
Clay
Clay minerals
Creeks & streams
Earth science
Environmental aspects
geology
Geophagy
Hypotheses
Kaolinite
kudurs
Lakes
Natural waters
Rare earth elements
Rare earth metals
soils
Specificity
Subgroups
surface waters
Ungulates
Weathering
Russia
Altai Mountains
Lake Baikal
Olkhon Island
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:From the novel results of comprehensive geological–hydrobiogeochemical studies conducted on Olkhon Island (Lake Baikal), it follows that the phenomenon of geophagy among wild and domestic ungulates on the island is caused by the deficiency of light subgroup rare earth elements (LREE) in plant food and natural waters, while not denying the possible role of other factors. This deficiency reflects the low LREE specificity of the most abundant metamorphic terrigenous carbonate rocks on the island, as well as their overlying eluvium–deluvium and soils. The resulting specificity of the landscapes may be the cause of the LREE imbalance in the nervous and hormonal systems of the body, which makes the animals regularly and periodically consume clay (kaolinite) products from weathering, enriched with the necessary nutritional elements. The identified cause of geophagy on Olkhon Island is likely to extend to a significant part of geophagy cases among animals, including humans, especially in the equatorial zone of the Earth.
ISSN:2076-3263
2076-3263
DOI:10.3390/geosciences13070211