Geological respiration of a mountain belt revealed by the trace element rhenium

Robert Hilton (1, 2) , Jérôme Gaillardet (2) , Damien Calmels (2, 3) , Jean-Louis Birck (2)

1 Department of Geography
2 IPGP - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
3 Department of Earth Sciences [Cambridge, UK]

Oxidation of rock-derived, petrogenic, organic carbon (OC petro) during weathering of sedimentary rocks is a major source of carbon dioxide (CO 2) to the atmosphere. This geological respiration is thought to be enhanced by physical erosion, suggesting that mountain belts could release large amounts of CO 2 to counter the CO 2 sequestration achieved by the erosion, riverine transfer and oceanic burial of organic carbon from the terrestrial biosphere. However, OC petro oxidation rates in mountain belts have not been quantified. Here we use rhenium (Re) as a proxy to track OC petro oxidation in mountain river catchments of Taiwan, where existing measurements of physical erosion rate allow the controls on OC petro oxidation to be assessed. Re has been shown to be closely associated with OC petro in rocks and following oxidation during chemical weathering forms a soluble oxyanion (ReO − 4) which contributes to the dissolved load of rivers. Soils on meta-sedimentary rocks in Taiwan show that Re loss is coupled to OC petro loss during weathering, confirming previous observations from soil profiles on sedimentary rocks elsewhere. In Taiwan rivers, dissolved Re flux increases with the catchment-average sediment yield, suggesting that physical erosion rate is a major control on OC petro oxidation. Based on our current understanding of Re mobility during weathering, the dissolved Re flux can be used to quantify an upper bound on the OC petro oxidation rate and the associated CO 2 transfer. The estimated CO 2 release from this mountain belt by OC petro oxidation does not negate estimates of CO 2 sequestration by burial of biospheric OC offshore. The findings are compared to OC transfers estimated for the Himalaya, where OC petro oxidation in the mountain belt remains unconstrained. Together, these cases suggest that mountain building in the tropics can result in a net sink of OC which sequesters atmospheric CO 2.

Mots clés: carbon cycle; organic carbon; rhenium; weathering; erosion; mountain rivers

Domaines: Géochimie

Robert Hilton, Jérôme Gaillardet, Damien Calmels, Jean-Louis Birck. Geological respiration of a mountain belt revealed by the trace element rhenium. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2014, 403, pp.27-36. ⟨10.1016/j.epsl.2014.06.021⟩. ⟨insu-02163277⟩