Rock weathering rates in arctic and subarctic environments (Abisko Mts., Swedish Lappland)

1996 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-517
Author(s):  
Marie-Françoise André
Keyword(s):  
Rock Weathering ◽  
Weathering Rates

How Plants Enhance Weathering and How Weathering is Important to Plants

Elements ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Porder
Keyword(s):  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Carbon Uptake ◽  
Rock Weathering ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Agricultural Systems ◽  
Carbon Loss ◽  
Weathering Rates ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Primary Minerals

Since land plants emerged from swampy coastlines over 400 million years ago, they have played a fundamental role in shaping the Earth system. Roots and associated fungi increase rock weathering rates, providing access to nutrients, while altering atmospheric CO2. As soils weather, the dissolution of primary minerals forces plants to rely on recycling and atmospheric deposition of rock-derived nutrients. Thus, for many terrestrial ecosystems, weathering ultimately constrains primary production (carbon uptake) and decomposition (carbon loss). These constraints are most acute in agricultural systems, which rely on mined fertilizer rather than the recycling of organic material to maintain production. Humans now mine similar amounts of some elements as weather out of rocks globally. This increase in supply has myriad environmental consequences.

scholarly journals Controls on rock weathering rates by reaction-induced hierarchical fracturing

2008 ◽  
Vol 275 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 364-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Røyne ◽  
Bjørn Jamtveit ◽  
Joachim Mathiesen ◽  
Anders Malthe-Sørenssen
Keyword(s):  
Rock Weathering ◽  
Weathering Rates

scholarly journals Rock weathering controls the potential for soil carbon storage at a continental scale

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric W. Slessarev ◽  
Oliver A. Chadwick ◽  
Noah W. Sokol ◽  
Erin E. Nuccio ◽  
Jennifer Pett-Ridge
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Organic Carbon ◽  
Soil Carbon ◽  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Mineral Weathering ◽  
Rock Weathering ◽  
Weathering Rates ◽  
Primary Mineral ◽  
Organic Carbon Storage ◽  
Primary Minerals

AbstractAs rock-derived primary minerals weather to form soil, they create reactive, poorly crystalline minerals that bind and store organic carbon. By implication, the abundance of primary minerals in soil might influence the abundance of poorly crystalline minerals, and hence soil organic carbon storage. However, the link between primary mineral weathering, poorly crystalline minerals, and soil carbon has not been fully tested, particularly at large spatial scales. To close this knowledge gap, we designed a model that links primary mineral weathering rates to the geographic distribution of poorly crystalline minerals across the USA, and then used this model to evaluate the effect of rock weathering on soil organic carbon. We found that poorly crystalline minerals are most abundant and most strongly correlated with organic carbon in geographically limited zones that sustain enhanced weathering rates, where humid climate and abundant primary minerals co-occur. This finding confirms that rock weathering alters soil mineralogy to enhance soil organic carbon storage at continental scales, but also indicates that the influence of active weathering on soil carbon storage is limited by low weathering rates across vast areas.

Rock-Weathering Rates as Functions of Time

1981 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Colman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Ground Surface ◽  
Volcanic Glass ◽  
Western United States ◽  
Rock Weathering ◽  
Incongruent Dissolution ◽  
Weathering Rates ◽  
Weathering Processes ◽  
Heterogeneous Rocks

AbstractThe scarcity of documented numerical relations between rock weathering and time has led to a common assumption that rates of weathering are linear. This assumption has been strengthened by studies that have calculated long-term average rates. However, little theoretical or empirical evidence exists to support linear rates for most chemical-weathering processes, with the exception of congruent dissolution processes. The few previous studies of rock-weathering rates that contain quantitative documentation of the relation between chemical weathering and time suggest that the rates of most weathering processes decrease with time. Recent studies of weathering rinds on basaltic and andesitic stones in glacial deposits in the western United States also clearly demonstrate that rock-weathering processes slow with time. Some weathering processes appear to conform to exponential functions of time, such as the square-root time function for hydration of volcanic glass, which conforms to the theoretical predictions of diffusion kinetics. However, weathering of mineralogically heterogeneous rocks involves complex physical and chemical processes that generally can be expressed only empirically, commonly by way of logarithmic time functions. Incongruent dissolution and other weathering processes produce residues, which are commonly used as measures of weathering. These residues appear to slow movement of water to unaltered material and impede chemical transport away from it. If weathering residues impede weathering processes then rates of weathering and rates of residue production are inversely proportional to some function of the residue thickness. This results in simple mathematical analogs for weathering that imply nonlinear time functions. The rate of weathering becomes constant only when an equilibrium thickness of the residue is reached. Because weathering residues are relatively stable chemically, and because physical removal of residues below the ground surface is slight, many weathering features require considerable time to reach constant rates of change. For weathering rinds on volcanic stones in the western United States, this time is at least 0.5 my.

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