Characteristics of soil profile CO&amp;lt;sub&amp;gt;2&amp;lt;/sub&amp;gt; concentrations in karst areas and their significance for global carbon cycles and climate change

Qiao Chen

doi:10.5194/esd-10-525-2019

Abstract

Abstract. CO2 concentrations of 21 soil profiles were measured in Zhaotong City, Yunnan Province. The varying characteristics of soil profile CO2 concentrations are distinguishable between carbonate and noncarbonate areas. In noncarbonate areas, soil profile CO2 concentrations increase and show significant positive correlations with soil depth. In carbonate areas, however, deep-soil CO2 concentrations decrease and have no significant correlations with soil depth. Soil organic carbon is negatively correlated with soil CO2 concentrations in noncarbonate areas. In carbonate areas, such relationships are not clear. This means that the special geological process in carbonate areas – carbonate corrosion – absorbs part of the deep-soil-profile CO2. Isotope and soil pH data also support such a process. A mathematical model simulating soil profile CO2 concentration was proposed. In noncarbonate areas, the measured and the simulated values are almost equal, while the measured CO2 concentrations of deep soils are less than the simulated in carbonate areas. Such results also indicate the occurrence of carbonate corrosion and the consuming of deep-soil CO2 in carbonate areas. The decreased CO2 concentration was roughly evaluated based on stratigraphic unit and farming activities. Soil pH and the purity of CaCO3 in carbonate bedrock deeply affect the corrosion. The corrosion in carbonate areas decreases deep-soil CO2 greatly (accounting for 5.2 %–66.3 % with average of 36 %) and naturally affects the soil CO2 released into the atmosphere. Knowledge of this process is important for karst carbon cycles and global climate changes and it may be a part of the “missing carbon sink”.

Highlights

In recent years, there has been increasing worldwide concern about carbon exchange among the atmosphere, the ocean, and terrestrial ecosystems
Soil profile CO2 has been widely reported to be correlated with soil depth by previous research (Rustad et al, 2000; Dai et al, 2004; Malak et al, 2018) and even the following linear equation has been developed (James and George, 1991)
Our observations in noncarbonate areas are concordant with these reports and support soil profile CO2 increases with soil depth in noncarbonate areas

Summary

Introduction

There has been increasing worldwide concern about carbon exchange among the atmosphere, the ocean, and terrestrial ecosystems. The missing carbon sink has puzzled scientists since Callendar (1938) presented the imbalance of absorbed and released CO2. The missing carbon sink reaches as much as 1.7 Pg, accounting for as much as 24 % of total carbon (Sundquist, 1993). There are differing viewpoints regarding the spatial distribution and absorption strength of the missing carbon sink in terrestrial ecosystems (Fan et al, 1998; Potter and Klooster, 1999). Some scholars have looked for the “missing sink” within the absorbed and released carbon in karst systems, and the estimated values reach a dominating part (almost one-third) of the missing sink (Jiang and Yuan, 1999)

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