Do Carbonate Karst Terrains Affect the Global Carbon Cycle? Ali Kraška Območja Na Karbonatih Vplivajo Na Globalno Kroženje Ogljika?
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COBISS: 1.01 DO carbonate karst terrains affect the global carbon cycle? Ali kraška območja na karbonatih vplivajo na globalno krožENJE ogljika? Jonathan B. Martin1, Amy BroWN1 & John EZELL1 Abstract UDC 551.44:546.26 Izvleček UDK 551.44:546.26 Jonathan B. Martin, Amy Brown & John Ezell: Do carbonate Jonathan B. Martin, Amy Brown & John Ezell: Ali kraška karst terrains affect the global carbon cycle? območja na karbonatih vplivajo na globalno kroženje oglji Carbonate minerals comprise the largest reservoir of carbon in ka? the earth’s lithosphere, but they are generally assumed to have Kljub temu, da so karbonati so največje skladišče ogljika v li- no net impact on the global carbon cycle if rapid dissolution tosferi, velja splošna domneva, da nimajo pomembnega vpliva and precipitation reactions represent equal sources and sinks na globalno kroženje ogljika, ker sta raztapljanje in izločanje of atmospheric carbon. Observations of both terrestrial and karbonatov uravnotežen izvor in ponor atmosferskega oglji- marine carbonate systems indicate that carbonate minerals ka. Kopenski in morski karbonati se v izbranem hidrološkem may simultaneously dissolve and precipitate within different siste mu sočasno raztapljajo in izločajo. V vseh primerih, ki jih portions of individual hydrologic systems. In all cases reported obravnavamo, sta raztapljanje in izločanje povezana s primarno here, the dissolution and precipitation reactions are related to produkcijo, ki uskladišči atmosferski CO2 kot organski ogljik primary production, which fixes atmospheric CO2 as organic in prehajanje organskega ogljika v raztoljeni CO 2, ob reminera- carbon, and the subsequent remineralization in watersheds of lizaciji v kraških vodonosnikih. Odlaganje karbonatov v morju the organic carbon to dissolved CO2. Deposition of carbonate predstavlja prehod CO2 v ozračje. Raztapljanje karbonatov je minerals in the ocean represents a flux of CO2 to the atmo- ponor CO2, če raztaplja ogljikova kislina oziroma izvor CO2, sphere. The dissolution of oceanic carbonate minerals can act če raztapljanje poteka preko oksidacije sulfida na meji med either as a sink for atmospheric CO2 if dissolved by carbonic slano in sladko vodo. Ker je raztapljanje in izločanje odvisno acid, or as a source of CO2 if dissolved through sulfide oxida- od številnih okoljskih parametrov, lahko spremembe okolja, tion at the freshwater-saltwater boundary. Since dissolution kot so intenziteta in pogostost padavin, temperatura površja and precipitation of carbonate minerals depend on ecological in spremembe morske gladine, spremenijo velikosti izvorov processes, changes in these processes due to shifts in rainfall in ponorov atmosferskega CO2 iz kraških procesov in vodijo patterns, earth surface temperatures, and sea level should also v nove povratne zanke v kroženju ogljika, ki se razlikujejo od alter the potential magnitudes of sources and sinks for atmo- današnjih. spheric CO2 from carbonate terrains, providing feedbacks to Ključne besede: globalno kroženje ogljika, skladiščenje or- the global carbon cycle that differ from modern feedbacks. ganskega ogljika, remineralizacija, raztapljanje karbonatov, Keywords: Global carbon cycle, carbonate terrains, organic izločanje karbonatov. carbon fixation, remineralization, carbonate mineral dissolu- tion, carbonate mineral precipitation. 1 University of Florida, Department of Geological Sciences, PO Box 112120, 241 Williamson Hall, Gainesville Florida 32605−2120, 352−392−9294, e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Received/Prejeto: 20.3.2013 ACTA CARSOLOGICA 42/2-3, 187–196, POSTOJNA 2013 Jonathan B. Martin, Amy BroWN & John Ezell Introduction Models of the global carbon cycle attempt to identify the environmental effects, including global warming (Mann magnitude of carbon in all earth, ocean, and atmospheric et al. 1998), ocean acidification (Orr et al. 2005, Hoegh- reservoirs, quantify the fluxes between those reservoirs, Guldberg et al. 2007), and melting of land-based glaciers and assess chemical transformations of the carbon within (Alley et al. 2005, Overpeck et al. 2006). Melting of land- reservoirs and in the flow paths between reservoirs (e.g., based glaciers, along with thermal expansion, lead to ris- Solomon et al. 2007, Fig. 1). Estimates of carbon cycling ing sea level (Lambeck et al. 2002). The major pre-industrial fluxes of carbon between reservoirs include exchange between the atmosphere and terrestrial biosphere, which was approximately 120 PgC/yr and between the atmosphere and surficial ocean, which was approximately 70 PgC/yr (Solomon et al. 2007). Of the reservoirs of carbon that typically are in- cluded as participating in global carbon cycling, the ocean is the largest reservoir, containing approximately 3.8 x 104 Pg C, compared with the current abundance of carbon in the atmosphere of around 7.6 x 102 Pg C (Fig. 2). The other major reservoir of carbon that partici- Fig. 1: A generalized version of the modern global carbon cycle model. The numbers in the box are in petagrams (1015 g) C (Pg C) and the fluxes are PgC/yr and include fluxes from anthropo- genic sources. For simplicity, the model shows only fluxes between the atmosphere and biosphere and oceans. The grey polygons within the carbonate rock reservoir represent karst features in- cluding caves, conduits and blue holes. Modified from Solomon et al. (2007) and Kump et al. (2010). are particularly important because the concentration of atmospheric CO2 is thought to have approximately dou- bled over the past few hundred years due to land use changes and increased fluxes of carbon from the terres- trial biosphere and burning of fossil fuels with industri- alization (Solomon et al. 2007). Atmospheric CO2 con- centration has been directly measured over the past 67 years and these measurements show that the partial pres- Fig. 2: Histogram of the magnitude of carbon stored in various sure of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere has increased from global reservoirs showing carbonate terrains with the largest around 318 ppmv to the most recent values of around abundance of carbon (data from Falkowski et al. 2000). 395 ppmv (Keeling & Whorf 2005). This increase is sim- ilar in magnitude to variations in CO2 partial pressure that occurred throughout Pleistocene glacial-interglacial pates in carbon cycling is the terrestrial biosphere, which 3 cycles as estimated from CO2 concentrations measured is estimated to contain around 2.3 x 10 Pg C. By far, the from the Vostok ice core in Antarctica (Falkowski et al. largest reservoir of carbon in the earth system is car- 2000). Changing land use and burning of fossil fuels are bonate rocks, which contain as much as 4 x 107 Pg C, or estimated to have increased annual fluxes of carbon to more than three orders of magnitude more carbon than the atmosphere by approximately 8 petagrams (1015 g) of the oceanic reservoir (Fig. 2). C per year (PgC/yr), an increase of slightly more than These carbonate rocks crop out over approximately 4% over the pre-industrial fluxes of carbon (Solomon 20% of the earth’s ice-free surface (e.g., Ford & Williams et al. 2007). This new flux of carbon, and the increase in 2007), but may be mantled by soils containing variable atmospheric carbon abundance, as well as associated in- amount of organic carbon. Carbonate rocks undergo dis- creases in the oceans, are presumed to lead to a variety of solution due to the action of CO2, which when dissolved 188 ACTA CARSOLOGICA 42/2-3 – 2013 DO carbonate karst terrains affect the global carbon cycle? and hydrated forms carbonic acid, the most common at glacial-interglacial timescales (Berger 1982; Mylroie weathering agent for all rock types, including carbonate 1993). The soluble nature of carbonate minerals can as well as silicate rocks. The CO2 driving this dissolution lead to large dissolution voids (speleogenesis and for- can come from surface waters in equilibrium with atmo- mation of karstic features), reflecting the exchange of spheric CO2, or from the remineralization of the organic carbon between the atmosphere and solid carbonate carbon which may increase CO2 concentrations over minerals. Speleogenesis also impacts other valuable re- that of the atmosphere resulting in increased dissolution. sources such as potable water and ecosystem services These dissolution reactions result in the transformation that rely on karst waters (e.g., Ford & Williams 2007), of atmospheric CO2 into dissolved bicarbonate, thereby reflecting the importance of this process on human acting as a sink for atmospheric CO2. Since carbonate social systems. Consequently, understanding how dis- minerals tend to be more soluble, with faster dissolution solution and reprecipitation of carbonate minerals may kinetics, than silicate minerals, they may be expected to be linked to the global carbon cycle is critical to evalu- play a larger role in dissolution reactions than silicate ations of impact to ecological function and water re- minerals and thus sequestration of atmospheric CO2. sources during changes to the global climate. Carbonate dissolution is neglected in most global car- In the following paper, we present case studies that bon cycle models, however, because precipitation of car- link reactions and exchange with atmospheric CO2 in bonate minerals also liberates CO2, resulting in no net karst hydrologic processes with carbonate dissolution change in the cycle (Berner et al. 1983). No net change in and precipitation. The case studies represent both terres- atmospheric CO2