Organic carbon released from carbonates and shales by chemical weathering: implications for the global organic carbon cycle understanding (original) (raw)

2003

Abstract

We propose in this study an initial estimation of the annual organic matter yield induced by chemical weathering of carbonates and shales considering their global surface at outcrop and their organic matter content. The calculation also uses data on river fluxes resulting from carbonate rocks and shales weathering in major world watersheds, published by numerous authors [1]. The results obtained from the studied watersheds have been extrapolated to a global scale. Despite rather large incertainty inherent to such an approach, the calculated value [2] of ca. 0.1 Gt implies that the annual organic carbon yield related to carbonates and shales chemical weathering might be a non-negligible component of the global carbon cycle. The calculated yield does not constitute a direct supply to soils and the rivers because a part of the produced organic matter can be mineralised, thus escaping recycling. Depending on the real fate of the organic carbon released from weathered ancient formations,...

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