Continental Silicate Weathering Research Articles

Lithium isotopes track changes in continental weathering regimes across the end-Permian mass extinction in Southwest China

It has been assumed there was a massive amount of volcanic CO2 injection into the Permian-Triassic atmosphere and ocean systems, leading to rapid climatic warming and expansion of marine anoxia. However, it remains intriguing how Earth recovered from such a CO2-driven hyperthermal condition. One potential mechanism involves the negative feedback between continental silicate weathering and atmospheric CO2, which could have helped maintain habitability across the end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) interval. This process can be examined using lithium isotopes (δ7Li), which reflect the balance of physical erosion and chemical weathering, and chemical weathering indices such as the Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA), which indicates the chemical alteration of parent materials during weathering. In this study, we analyze siliciclastic sedimentary rocks from the Lopingian to Lower Triassic depositional sequences in the HK-1 drill core at the Lengqinggou section, a terrestrial coastal depositional environment in Southwest China, to reconstruct changes in continental chemical weathering intensity across the EPME. We observed a significant ∼4 ‰ positive shift in δ7Li, accompanied by a marked decrease in Li content from 26 ppm to 6 ppm. Our corrected CIA data (CIAcorr) also exhibits a considerable decrease from 94 to 59 across the EPME. The new δ7Li and CIAcorr data from the terrestrial section indicate a decrease in overall chemical weathering intensity in Southwest China, alongside an increase in physical erosion rates, suggesting a shift from a transport-limited to a kinetically limited weathering regime across the EPME. These changes in the continental weathering regime appear to be linked to active volcanic activity near the South China Block, which led to massive deforestation and the collapse of soil systems. Dramatic reductions in chemical weathering intensity may result in inefficient atmospheric CO2 consumption through silicate weathering if other climatic and tectonic conditions remain constant, potentially contribute to maintaining high global surface temperatures and prolonged marine anoxia into the Early Triassic.

Sensitive response of erosion and weathering to the Indian Summer Monsoon changes in South Asia during Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations

Continental weathering plays a key role in regulating the long-term climate stability via negative feedback. However, whether and how erosion and weathering respond to rapid climate change (e.g millennial scale) in large river basins remains unclear, partly due to the lack of archives with robust age models and high sampling resolution. As one of the largest sediment source-to-sink systems, the Himalaya-Ganga/Brahmaputra River-Bay of Bengal system is considered as an ideal laboratory for examining the weathering-climate relationships over the past. Here we present the elemental and mineralogical data from well age-constrained core sediments in the Bay of Bengal, which document the erosion and weathering conditions in South Asia during the last glacial period. All proxies generally show larger values during glacial interstadials than the stadials, consistent with the millennial variabilities of regional sea surface temperature (SST) and the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) strength. We confirm that the erosion and chemical weathering signals in Ganga/Brahmaputra River basins, which sensitively respond to the ISM strength and/or temperature change, could be propagated through the large river systems and faithfully preserved in the South Asian marginal seas, without noticeable time lag on a millennial scale. Our findings provide valuable data for response of erosion and weathering dynamics in a large river basin to rapid climate changes, and highlight the immense potential of monsoon-driven continental silicate weathering in floodplains as a substantial short-term carbon sink, thus underscoring a pivotal natural carbon sequestration mechanism amidst the escalating threat of global warming.

Composition and constraints of lithium isotopes in cryoconite from various remote glacier areas of the Tibetan Plateau

Lithium isotope is one of the most promising indicators for the study of continental silicate weathering, and lithium concentrations and its isotopic compositions in earth surface can provide a better understanding of the geochemical behavior and isotopic fractionation during weathering and erosion. This work focused on the composition and distribution of Li isotope in cryoconite deposited on various glacier areas in a large range of the Tibetan Plateau and surroundings, as well as its implications for cryoconite dust provenances. Results showed that δ7Li in cryoconite varied within the same order of magnitude (−2.14 ‰-7.74 ‰), which is characterized by geographic distribution of higher δ7Li value of cryoconite in northern glaciers (e.g. Yuzhufeng Glacier), and lower δ7Li value in southern glaciers. In comparison with other global materials, the cryoconite dust shows a lighter δ7Li isotopic composition due to constraints of climatic conditions and land surface weathering intensity. Compared with dust materials in the surrounding Asian dust sources (e.g. large deserts and Gobi), we find that, the primary sources of Li isotope in cryoconite of the northern locations were from both local dust/soils of the TP surface and the surrounding large deserts. Moreover, the products of anthropogenic activities (e.g. coal-burning) may also influence the isotopic composition of the cryoconite dust, and Li isotope may serve as potential tracers of anthropogenic source activities. Therefore, this work provides a complete view of the composition and distribution of Lithium isotopes in cryoconite from various glacier areas of the Tibetan Plateau, and the research significance of its transport processes and source constraints of Li isotopes in cryoconite is proposed.

Chemical weathering in glacial catchment acting as a net carbon source

Over geological time scales, continental silicate weathering is considered as a critical carbon sink that regulates long-term climate feedback. By contrast, recent studies indicate that sulfide oxidation during weathering can be as a potential carbon source. However, whether chemical weathering in glacial conditions characterized by extreme erosion is a net carbon sink or source remains elusive. Here, we present the seasonal carbon cycle processes in a typical glacier catchment, via high-resolution (weekly) river water sampling during the whole 2017 in the Laohugou river, northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Our seasonal result shows that the release of CO2 by sulfide oxidation during the monsoon period can be much faster than CO2 consumption through weathering of silicate rocks, with maximum of ∼26 times. Extending to global glacial basins, we observed a consistent pattern that inorganic carbon releases in alpine glaciers are faster than atmospheric CO2 consumption. We propose that weathering in global glacial environment acts as a significant carbon source, and thus affects climate feedback.

The effect of the Pliocene temperature pattern on silicate weathering and Pliocene–Pleistocene cooling

Abstract. The warmer early Pliocene climate featured changes to global sea surface temperature (SST) patterns, namely a reduction in the Equator–pole gradient and the east–west SST gradient in the tropical Pacific, the so-called “permanent El Niño”. Here we investigate the consequences of the SST changes to silicate weathering and thus to atmospheric CO2 on geological timescales. Different SST patterns than today imply regional modifications of the hydrological cycle that directly affect continental silicate weathering in particular over tropical “hotspots” of weathering, such as the Maritime Continent, thus leading to a “weatherability pattern effect”. We explore the impact of Pliocene-like SST changes on weathering using climate model and silicate weathering model simulations, and we deduce CO2 and temperature at carbon cycle equilibrium between solid Earth degassing and silicate weathering. In general, we find large regional increases and decreases in weathering fluxes, and the net effect depends on the extent to which they cancel. Permanent El Niño conditions lead to a small amplification of warming relative to the present day by 0.4 ∘C, suggesting that the demise of the permanent El Niño could have had a small amplifying effect on cooling from the early Pliocene into the Pleistocene. For the reduced Equator–pole gradient, the weathering increases and decreases largely cancel, leading to no detectable difference in global temperature at carbon cycle equilibrium. A robust SST reconstruction of the Pliocene is needed for a quantitative evaluation of the weatherability pattern effect.

Diverse manifestations of silicate weathering responses to late Neogene cooling within a tectonically active setting

The relationship between tectonic uplift, climate change and continental silicate weathering has long been debated because deconstructing the tectonic and climatic impacts on continental silicate weathering is challenging. To address this issue, we present long-term climatic and silicate weathering records since 7.3 Ma on tectonically active NE Tibet retrieved from the SG-1 and SG-1b lake sediment drill cores in the western Qaidam Basin. We find distinct correlations between silicate weathering and regional climate on long-term (>106 years) and short-term (105–106 years) time scales. On long-term scales, silicate weathering intensity exhibits a consistent evolution with regional climate, both of which are dominantly controlled by global climate change. This evolution resulted in a stable weathering intensity during 7.3–~3.6 Ma and a weakening of weathering intensity since ~3.6 Ma, followed by a continuous decreasing trend after 2.6 Ma. However, on short-term scales, silicate weathering intensity displays out-of-phase changes with the regional climate at 6.9–3.7 Ma and 0.2–0.1 Ma and in-phase changes at 7.3–6.9 Ma and 3.7–0.2 Ma. We attribute this long-term consistency between the weathering intensity and climate to aridification in inland Asia, but the short-term inconsistencies at 6.9–3.7 Ma and 0.2–0.1 Ma to the change in the sediment routing system impacted by the regional climate within a tectonically active setting. Such a change in the sediment routing system along with sediment recycling may bias weathering indication on orbital time scales, and our study therefore suggests a more complex response of silicate weathering to tectonic and climatic forcings.

Role of seafloor production versus continental basalt weathering in Middle to Late Ordovician seawater 87Sr/86Sr and climate

The global climate of the Ordovician Period (486.9 to 443.1 Ma) is characterized by cooling that culminated in the Hirnantian glaciation. Chemical weathering of Ca- and Mg-bearing silicate minerals and the subsequent trapping of carbon in marine carbonates act as a sink for atmospheric CO2 on multi-million-year time scales, with basaltic rocks consuming CO2 at a greater rate than rocks of granitic composition. The oceanic Sr isotope ratio (87Sr/86Sr) can act as a geochemical proxy for the relative proportion of basaltic versus granitic weathering. Oxygen isotopes (δ18O) act as a proxy for paleotemperature and ice volume, providing a useful complement to 87Sr/86Sr in studies of ancient climate. Previous studies have reported stepwise cooling (increasing δ18O) during the Middle to Late Ordovician. Combined with Sr and C cycle models, this has led to the hypothesis that continental silicate weathering of mafic material drove Ordovician cooling (e.g., the Taconic Orogeny). However, Sr and C cycle models have not accounted for an apparent rise in sea level and seafloor production in the Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian), which would increase the hydrothermal Sr flux as well as degassing along continental volcanic arcs. Furthermore, some Ordovician studies contain temporal uncertainty between 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O curves if they are not based on paired analyses, which can obscure the relationship between silicate weathering and cooling. Here, we present new paired 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O data from conodont apatite and integrate this with both a deterministic (forward) and stochastic (reverse) modeling approach to argue that increased hydrothermal weathering played a role in driving marine 87Sr/86Sr, specifically an inflection occurring in the Pygoda serra conodont zone of the mid-Darriwilian Stage (∼ 460.9 Ma ± 1 My). This 87Sr/86Sr inflection is accompanied by an increase in δ18O, consistent with climate cooling. Clarifying the role of seafloor production for marine 87Sr/86Sr and the implications for Ordovician cooling allows for a more nuanced understanding of the factors that drive multi-million-year shifts in climate.

Enhanced continental chemical weathering during the multiple early Eocene hyperthermals: New constraints from the southern Indian Ocean

Multiple short-term (<105 years) global warming events (“hyperthermals”) occurred throughout the early Eocene. Chemical weathering of continental silicate rocks is considered to have played a key role in recovery from these transient global warming events via consumption of excess atmospheric CO2. However, although evidence of this negative feedback has been reported for the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), the effectiveness of chemical weathering during other transient hyperthermals remains poorly constrained. Here, we newly report early Eocene marine Os isotope records including Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM2), the I1 event, and ETM3 at Ocean Drilling Program Site 752 in the southern Indian Ocean. We demonstrate that marine 187Os/188Os increased during the hyperthermal events that were less severe than the PETM. The intensity of continental silicate weathering increased by 18%–22%, 17%–21%, and 13%–16% during ETM2, the I1 event, and ETM3, respectively, compared to the background conditions. Based on a reconsidered formulation of an Os mass-balance model, the intensity of continental silicate weathering during the PETM was reassessed to be a 34%–42% increase relative to the pre-PETM level. Thus, the continental chemical weathering flux during the Eocene hyperthermals may have been up to half as large as that of the PETM. It is noteworthy that the ordering of the changes in continental silicate weathering did not agree with the ordering of the seawater temperature rise among these events. This weathering–warming inconsistency might be attributable to (1) potential underestimation of continental silicate weathering due to the emplacement of Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) and related basalt weathering, such as the North Atlantic Igneous Province and Siletzia in western North America, (2) changes in the background level of weathering intensity, and/or (3) a secular decrease in continental weatherability through the long-lasting early Eocene warming trend.

Evolution of Earth's tectonic carbon conveyor belt.

Concealed deep beneath the oceans is a carbon conveyor belt, propelled by plate tectonics. Our understanding of its modern functioning is underpinned by direct observations, but its variability through time has been poorly quantified. Here we reconstruct oceanic plate carbon reservoirs and track the fate of subducted carbon using thermodynamic modelling. In the Mesozoic era, 250 to 66 million years ago, plate tectonic processes had a pivotal role in driving climate change. Triassic-Jurassic period cooling correlates with a reduction in solid Earth outgassing, whereas Cretaceous period greenhouse conditions can be linked to a doubling in outgassing, driven by high-speed plate tectonics. The associated 'carbon subduction superflux' into the subcontinental mantle may have sparked North American diamond formation. In the Cenozoic era, continental collisions slowed seafloor spreading, reducing tectonically driven outgassing, while deep-sea carbonate sediments emerged as the Earth's largest carbon sink. Subduction and devolatilization of this reservoir beneath volcanic arcs led to a Cenozoic increase in carbon outgassing, surpassing mid-ocean ridges as the dominant source of carbon emissions 20 million years ago. An increase in solid Earth carbon emissions during Cenozoic cooling requires an increase in continental silicate weathering flux to draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide, challenging previous views and providing boundary conditions for future carbon cycle models.

Accurate lithium isotopic analysis of twenty geological reference materials by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

The lithium (Li) isotopes can be used to track the evolution of continental silicate weathering, which has an important role in maintaining Earth's long-term climate stability. At present, complex separation procedures and analytical mass bias restrict the accurate determination of Li isotopic compositions in various geological samples with different Li concentrations and matrix/Li ratios. Here, an optimization of dual-column chromatography achieves high Li recovery, low procedural blank, and low Na/Li ratio (< 1) after purification, allowing the acquisition of high precision Li isotope ratios by a Nu Plasma 3 multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). In order to evaluate the accuracy of new method, the δ7Li values of BHVO-2, BCR-2, AGV-2, JG-2, RGM-2, SGR-1b, GSR-6, GSR-12, and seawater, are repeatedly analyzed more than 3 times each and are consistent with the published data within the uncertainty. The long-term external reproducibility of δ7Li based on L-SVEC and IRMM-016 pure solutions is about ±0.2‰ (2SD), and is suitable for analysis of geological samples. These results suggest that new dual-column method is reproducible and reliable. We also report ten new reference materials including two USGS rocks (SDC-1: 1.8 ± 0.4‰; W-2a: 2.9 ± 0.3‰), four soils (GSS-3: 1.3 ± 0.2‰; GSS-4: −5.1 ± 0.4‰; GSS-6: −1.9 ± 0.3‰; GSS-8: 0.4 ± 0.3‰), and four stream sediments (GSD-6: −1.0 ± 0.4‰; GSD-11: 1.1 ± 0.3‰; GSD-12: 1.8 ± 0.2‰; GSD-14: 1.6 ± 0.4‰), all previously analyzed for K isotopes. There is significantly fractionation of Li and K isotopes during silicate weathering. Compared to the K isotopes, Li isotopes have more promising as an isotope tool for weathering due to its larger fractionation and its abiotic property.

Lithium isotope composition of the Carboniferous seawater: Implications for initiating and maintaining the late Paleozoic ice age

• δ 7 Li values the Carboniferous seawater are reported for the first time. • Carboniferous continental silicate weathering changed from congruent to incongruent. • Hercynian orogeny and radiation of tropical forests are key drivers for the LPIA . The reasons for decreasing atmospheric CO 2 concentration in the Carboniferous and initiation of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA) are still in debate. To assess the contributions of continental silicate weathering, we obtain lithium isotope composition (δ 7 Li) of the Carboniferous seawater based on the East Fenghuangshan carbonate section in South China. Original seawater records are recognized after systematic evaluation of diagenetic impacts, showing that seawater δ 7 Li declined from ∼ 20 ‰ before the late Visean to ∼ 12 ‰ around the Visean-Serpukhovian boundary followed by a gradual rise to ∼ 21 ‰ until the Moscovian. Combined Li-Sr isotopic modeling indicates that decline of seawater δ 7 Li requires decrease of riverine δ 7 Li and twofold increase of riverine Li flux, suggesting a transition to more congruent continental silicate weathering regime that likely results from uplift of the Hercynian orogen. High relief due to the Hercynian orogeny exposes fresh rocks for weathering by physical denudation of the thick soil and saprolite cover, which is beneficial for rapid CO 2 consumption and probably initiates the LPIA. By contrast, radiation of tropical forests is responsible for the subsequent increase of seawater δ 7 Li. It turns the weathering regime to a more incongruent one by promoting clay mineral formation. The colonization of plants with deep roots also accelerates the continental weathering, which together with intense photosynthesis, should contribute significantly to keeping low atmospheric CO 2 concentration and maintaining the prolonged LPIA. Therefore, we suggest that uplift of the Hercynian orogen and radiation of tropical forests are the key drivers for initiating and maintaining the LPIA.

Neogene continental denudation and the beryllium conundrum

Reconstructing Cenozoic history of continental silicate weathering is crucial for understanding Earth's carbon cycle and greenhouse history. The question of whether continental silicate weathering increased during the late Cenozoic, setting the stage for glacial cycles, has remained controversial for decades. Whereas numerous independent proxies of weathering in ocean sediments (e.g., Li, Sr, and Os isotopes) have been interpreted to indicate that the continental silicate weathering rate increased in the late Cenozoic, beryllium isotopes in seawater have stood out as an important exception. Beryllium isotopes have been interpreted to indicate stable continental weathering and/or denudation rates over the last 12 Myr. Here we present a Be cycle model whose results show that variations in the 9Be weathering flux are counterbalanced by near-coastal scavenging while the cosmogenic 10Be flux from the upper atmosphere stays constant. As a result, predicted seawater 10Be/9Be ratios remain nearly constant even when global denudation and Be weathering rates increase by three orders of magnitude. Moreover, 10Be/9Be records allow for up to an 11-fold increase in Be weathering and denudation rates over the late Cenozoic, consistent with estimates from other proxies. The large increase in continental weathering indicated by multiple proxies further suggests that the increased CO2 consumption by continental weathering, driven by mountain-building events, was counterbalanced by other geological processes to prevent a runaway icehouse condition during the late Cenozoic. These processes could include enhanced carbonate dissolution via pyrite weathering, accelerated oxidation of fossil organic carbon, and/or reduced basalt weathering as the climate cooled.

Monsoon‐Enhanced Silicate Weathering as a New Atmospheric CO2 Consumption Mechanism Contributing to Fast Late Miocene Global Cooling

AbstractFast late Miocene global cooling since ∼7 Ma accompanied by less changeable atmospheric CO2 levels revealed by existing proxy reconstructions has suggested an intriguing tectonic‐climate link that remains controversial. Here, we present late Cenozoic clay mineral records of the silicate weathering intensity from the Chinese Loess Plateau and northeastern Tibetan Plateau to demonstrate a remarkable increase in silicate weathering intensity at ∼9–7 Ma induced by enhanced monsoon. This change caused CO2 consumption ranging from 0.18 to 1.8 × 1011 mol C yr−1 over the East Asian monsoon region, accounting for 0.2%–2% of the modern continental silicate weathering flux, thus providing an additional atmospheric CO2 sink. Moreover, we propose that this additional sink may have contributed to the large atmospheric CO2 consumption and fast global cooling in the late Miocene, which ultimately caused the onset of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation at ∼7 Ma.

Global silicate weathering flux overestimated because of sediment–water cation exchange

Rivers carry the dissolved and solid products of silicate mineral weathering, a process that removes [Formula: see text] from the atmosphere and provides a key negative climate feedback over geological timescales. Here we show that, in some river systems, a reactive exchange pool on river suspended particulate matter, bonded weakly to mineral surfaces, increases the mobile cation flux by 50%. The chemistry of both river waters and the exchange pool demonstrates exchange equilibrium, confirmed by Sr isotopes. Global silicate weathering fluxes are calculated based on riverine dissolved sodium (Na+) from silicate minerals. The large exchange pool supplies Na+ of nonsilicate origin to the dissolved load, especially in catchments with widespread marine sediments, or where rocks have equilibrated with saline basement fluids. We quantify this by comparing the riverine sediment exchange pool and river water chemistry. In some basins, cation exchange could account for the majority of sodium in the river water, significantly reducing estimates of silicate weathering. At a global scale, we demonstrate that silicate weathering fluxes are overestimated by 12 to 28%. This overestimation is greatest in regions of high erosion and high sediment loads where the negative climate feedback has a maximum sensitivity to chemical weathering reactions. In the context of other recent findings that reduce the net [Formula: see text] consumption through chemical weathering, the magnitude of the continental silicate weathering fluxes and its implications for solid Earth [Formula: see text] degassing fluxes need to be further investigated.

Lithium and Lithium Isotopes in Earth’s Surface Cycles

Lithium and its isotopes can provide information on continental silicate weathering, which is the primary natural drawdown process of atmospheric CO2 and a major control on climate. Lithium isotopes themselves can help our understanding of weathering, via globally important processes such as clay formation and cation retention. Both these processes occur as part of weathering in modern surface environments, such as rivers, soil pore waters, and groundwaters, but Li isotopes can also be used to track weathering changes across major climate-change events. Lithium isotope evidence from several past climatic warming and cooling episodes shows that weathering processes respond rapidly to changes in temperature, meaning that weathering is capable of bringing climate back under control within a few tens of thousands of years.

Middle Eocene greenhouse warming facilitated by diminished weathering feedback

The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) represents a ~500-kyr period of global warming ~40 million years ago and is associated with a rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, but the cause of this CO2 rise remains enigmatic. Here we show, based on osmium isotope ratios (187Os/188Os) of marine sediments and published records of the carbonate compensation depth (CCD), that the continental silicate weathering response to the inferred CO2 rise and warming was strongly diminished during the MECO—in contrast to expectations from the silicate weathering thermostat hypothesis. We surmise that global early and middle Eocene warmth gradually diminished the weatherability of continental rocks and hence the strength of the silicate weathering feedback, allowing for the prolonged accumulation of volcanic CO2 in the oceans and atmosphere during the MECO. These results are supported by carbon cycle modeling simulations, which highlight the fundamental importance of a variable weathering feedback strength in climate and carbon cycle interactions in Earth’s history.

Mountain ranges, climate and weathering. Do orogens strengthen or weaken the silicate weathering carbon sink?

The role of mountains in the geological evolution of the carbon cycle has been intensively debated for the last decades. Mountains are thought to increase the local physical erosion, which in turns promotes silicate weathering, organic carbon transport and burial, and release of sulfuric acid by dissolution of sulfides. In this contribution, we explore the impact of mountain ranges on silicate weathering. Mountains modify the global pattern of atmospheric circulation as well as the local erosion conditions. Using an IPCC-class climate model, we first estimate the climatic impact of mountains by comparing the present day climate with the climate when all the continents are assumed to be flat. We then use these climate output to calculate weathering changes when mountains are present or absent, using standard expression for physical erosion and a 1D vertical model for rock weathering. We found that large-scale climate changes and enhanced rock supply by erosion due to mountain uplift have opposite effect, with similar orders of magnitude.A thorough testing of the weathering model parameters by data-model comparison shows that best-fit parameterizations lead to a decrease of weathering rate in the absence of mountain by about 20%. However, we demonstrate that solutions predicting an increase in weathering in the absence of mountain cannot be excluded. A clear discrimination between the solutions predicting an increase or a decrease in global weathering is pending on the improvement of the existing global databases for silicate weathering. Nevertheless, imposing a constant and homogeneous erosion rate for models without relief, we found that weathering decrease becomes unequivocal for very low erosion rates (below 10 t/km2/yr). We conclude that further monitoring of continental silicate weathering should be performed with a spatial distribution allowing to discriminate between the various continental landscapes (mountains, plains …).

A sink- or a source-driven carbon cycle at the geological timescale? Relative importance of palaeogeography versus solid Earth degassing rate in the Phanerozoic climatic evolution

AbstractThe Phanerozoic evolution of the atmospheric CO2 level is controlled by the fluxes entering or leaving the exospheric system. In this contribution, we focus on the role played by the palaeogeographic configuration on the efficiency of the CO2 sink by continental silicate weathering, and on the impact of the magmatic degassing of CO2. We use the spatially resolved numerical model GEOCLIM to compute the response of the silicate weathering and atmospheric CO2 to continental drift for 22 time slices of the Phanerozoic. Regarding the CO2 released by the magmatic activity, we reconstruct several Phanerozoic histories of this flux, based on published indices. Again using the GEOCLIM model, we calculate the CO2 evolution for each degassing scenario. We show that the palaeogeographic setting is a main driver of the climate from 540 Ma to about the beginning of the Jurassic, with the noticeable exception of the Late Palaeozoic ice age. Regarding the role of the magmatic degassing, the various reconstructions do not converge towards a single signal, and thus introduce large uncertainties in the calculated CO2 level over time. Nevertheless, the continental dispersion, which prevails since the Jurassic, promotes CO2 consumption by weathering and forces atmospheric CO2 to stay low. Warm climates of the ‘middle’ Cretaceous and early Cenozoic require enhanced CO2 degassing by magmatic activity.

Contribution of forests to the carbon sink via biologically-mediated silicate weathering: A case study of China

During silicate weathering, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is consumed and base cations are released from silicate minerals to form carbonate and bicarbonate ions, which are finally deposited as carbonate complexes. Continental silicate weathering constitutes a stable carbon sink that is an important influence on long-term climate change, as it sequesters atmospheric carbon dioxide at a million-year time scale. Traditionally, CO2 sequestered through silicate weathering is estimated by measuring the flux of the base cations to watersheds. However, plants also absorb considerable amounts of base cations. Plant biomass is often removed from ecosystems during harvesting. The base cations are subsequently released after decomposition of the harvested plant materials, and thereby enhance CO2 consumption related to weathering. Here, we analyze plant biomass storage-harvest fluxes (production and removal of biomass from forests) of base cations in forests across China to quantify the relative contribution of forest trees to the terrestrial weathering-related carbon sink. Our data suggest that the potential CO2 consumption rate for biomass-related silicate weathering (from the combined action of with afforestation/reforestation, controlled harvesting and rock powder amendment) in Chinese forests is 7.9±4.1Tg CO2yr−1. This represents ~34% of the chemical weathering rate in China. Globally, forests may increase CO2 sequestration through biologically-mediated silicate weathering by ~32%.

Paleoweathering and paleoenvironmental change recorded in lacustrine sediments of the early to middle Eocene in Fushun Basin, Northeast China

AbstractDeciphering the long‐term interaction among continental silicate weathering, global climate, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations is helpful in understanding the mechanisms of the Cenozoic climate change and accessing the future climatic and environmental response to anthropogenic carbon emissions. The Eocene, which is characterized by the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO) and the following global cooling, represents an ideal test case. Here we generate geochemical data of the Eocene lacustrine sediments from the Fushun Basin, northeast China, to explore the regional climatic response to the global climate change. The chemical index of alteration (CIA) and plagioclase index of alteration (PIA) consistently show a gradual, long‐term decrease, indicating a climatic transition from warm and humid to relatively cold and arid during the Eocene in the Fushun Basin. This climatic trend is broadly coincident with the global cooling and decreasing CO2 concentration, implying that the regional climate is closely correlated with the global climate change over geological time scales. Additionally, the extreme silicate weathering and high lake productivity as reflected by relatively positive δ13C values of lacustrine organic matter are associated with the EECO. This consistency may demonstrate that enhanced continental weathering and lake productivity had served as effective sinks to lower atmospheric CO2 across the EECO. Collectively, our new geochemical data add supporting evidence for a long‐term, close coupling among continental silicate weathering, climate, and global carbon cycle during the Eocene.