Output details

Process-based modeling of silicate mineral weathering responses to increasing atmospheric CO2 and climate change

This study simulated the dissolution of minerals in soil and underlying rock, using 1st principles of mass and flux balance, thermodynamic equilibria, and kinetic rate laws for irreversible reactions. The paper presents a new mathematical model that is driven by scenarios of elevated atmospheric CO2 and related climate and biota changes, to quantify how biological and geochemical process rates respond to CO2 changes. This model was incorporated into a global model of how plants affect mineral weathering in soil, the first with mechanistic geochemical process descriptions, and led to four further journal articles on biological regulation of climate.