A greening Earth has reversed the trend of decreasing carbonate weathering under a warming climate
Abstract The response of mineral weathering and its related Weathering Sink for atmospheric CO2 (WS atm-CO2) to global vegetation greening are not well understood. After applying different biogeochemical models and a field experiment to investigate the influence of vegetation greening and warming on...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57899-z |
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| Summary: | Abstract The response of mineral weathering and its related Weathering Sink for atmospheric CO2 (WS atm-CO2) to global vegetation greening are not well understood. After applying different biogeochemical models and a field experiment to investigate the influence of vegetation greening and warming on the variations of carbonate weathering and WS atm-CO2 on regional and global scales, here we show a significant positive relationship between global carbonate weathering intensity ([HCO3 −] as a proxy) and vegetation greenness. During 1982–2018, under a warming climate, [HCO3 −] and WS atm-CO2 increase by 5.8% and 6.1%, respectively, due to vegetation greening, in the carbonate areas of Southwest China. Meanwhile, the [HCO3 −] in global carbonate areas increases by +2.4% during the same period. By contrast, the [HCO3 −] in global carbonate areas decreases by −1.3% without a vegetation function due to the warming. Moreover, we estimated that the carbonate weathering enhancements due to vegetation restoration at the global scale could reach 43.8%. Our results demonstrate that future vegetation restoration is important for the carbon capture by mineral weathering. |
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| ISSN: | 2041-1723 |