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An imbalance in pyrite weathering and burial is a primary mechanism responsible for oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans, but key processes governing the terrestrial sulfur cycle remain nebulous. Here, we investigate components of the terrestrial sulfur cycle in a highly productive, glacier‐fed catchment, and use a global mass balance model to constrain riverine sulfur fluxes. Chemistry of stream water and plant debris in the Jostedal watershed, Norway suggests sulfur isotope discrimination is occurring in the porewater. Global models also corroborate additional, previously overlooked pyrite burial with a modest isotope fractionation (<20‰), similar to values reported from freshwater ecosystems. Collectively, our results indicate that a significant amount of sulfate produced by weathering remains trapped in terrestrial environments. This terrestrial sulfur sink might have waxed and waned over geologic time in response to major biogeochemical events such as terrestrial afforestation.

The cryosphere hosts a widespread microbial community, yet microbial influences on silicate weathering have been historically neglected in cold‐arid deserts. Here we investigate bioweathering by a cold‐tolerant cyanobacteria (Leptolyngbya glacialis) via laboratory experiments using glaciofluvial drift sediments at 12°C, analogous to predicted future permafrost surface temperatures. Our results show threefold enhanced Si weathering rates in pre‐weathered, mixed‐lithology Antarctic biotic reactors compared to abiotic controls, indicating the significant influence of microbial life on weathering. Although biotic and abiotic weathering rates are similar in Icelandic sediments, neo‐formed clay and Fe‐(oxy)hydroxide minerals observed in association with biofilms in biotic reactors are common on Icelandic mafic minerals, similar to features observed in unprocessed Antarctic drifts. This suggests that microbes enhance weathering in systems where they must scavenge for nutrients that are not easily liberated via abiotic pathways; potential biosignatures may form in nutrient‐rich systems as well. In both sediment types we also observed up to fourfold higher bicarbonate concentrations in biotic reactors relative to abiotic reactors, indicating that, as warming occurs, psychrotolerant biota will enhance bicarbonate flux to the oceans, thus stimulating carbonate deposition and providing a negative feedback to increasing atmospheric CO₂.