The circular nutrient economy of terrestrial ecosystems and the consequences for rock weathering

Earth’s biosphere is thought to exert a substantial influence on regolith evolution and chemical weathering rates. However, ecosystems are also highly efficient at retaining and recycling nutrients. Thus, when the ecological demand for rock-derived nutrients (e.g., P, Ca, K) exceeds the rates of regolith supply, ecological retention and recycling strategies can minimize nutrient limitations. To evaluate the balance between nutrient recycling and new nutrient input, we combined a plant model that drives growth according to foliar P levels with a weathering model that includes regolith rejuvenation via erosion and export via chemical weathering according to water flow, regolith thickness, mineral dissolution rates, secondary minerals, and nutrient storage in organic and mineral phases. We find that plant growth is strongly dependent on the total regolith nutrient inventory, resulting in a strong correlation between plant productivity and erosion. Increased water export or decreased regolith thickness diminish the total inventory of nutrient corresponding to lower rates of recycling and lower plant growth. In contrast, purported biogenic drivers of weathering, such as enhanced mineral dissolution, only support higher growth rates at high erosion rates. At erosion rates typical of the global land surface, more rapid mineral dissolution combined with enhanced formation of secondary minerals, depletes the inventory of mineral P, resulting in no benefit for plant growth. We also find that the increased chemical weathering export does not scale directly with plant growth. For example, accelerated mineral weathering does increase chemical weathering export but not potential plant growth. Conversely, thicker regolith is associated with a small increase in weathering export, but a large increase in potential plant growth. Collectively, when plant growth is coupled to regolith weathering our calculations suggest that plant productivity is not directly correlated with silicate weathering fluxes, and that biotic drivers of silicate weathering may only be effective at high erosion rates not typical at the Earth’s surface

Do degree and rate of silicate weathering depend on plant productivity?

Plants and their associated below-ground microbiota possess the tools for rock weathering. Yet the quantitative evaluation of the impact of these biogenic weathering drivers relative to abiogenic parameters, such as the supply of primary minerals, water, and acids, is an open question in Critical Zone research. Here we present a novel strategy to decipher the relative impact of these drivers. We quantified the degree and rate of weathering and compared these to nutrient uptake along the "EarthShape" transect in the Chilean Coastal Cordillera. These sites define a major north-south gradient in precipitation and primary productivity but overlie granitoid rock throughout. We present a dataset of the chemistry of Critical Zone compartments (bedrock, regolith, soil, and vegetation) to quantify the relative loss of soluble elements (the "degree of weathering") and the inventory of bioavailable elements. We use (87)Sra center dot Sr-86 isotope ratios to identify the sources of mineral nutrients to plants. With rates from cosmogenic nuclides and biomass growth we determined fluxes ("weathering rates"), meaning the rate of loss of elements out of the ecosystems, averaged over weathering timescales (millennia), and quantified mineral nutrient recycling between the bulk weathering zone and the bulk vegetation cover. We found that neither the degree of weathering nor the weathering rates increase systematically with precipitation from north to south along the climate and vegetation gradient. Instead, the increase in biomass nutrient demand is accommodated by faster nutrient recycling. In the absence of an increase in weathering rate despite a five-fold increase in precipitation and net primary productivity (NPP), we hypothesize that plant growth might in fact dampen weathering rates. Because plants are thought to be key players in the global silicate weathering-carbon feedback, this hypothesis merits further evaluation

Strontium isotopes trace biological activity in the Critical Zone along a climate and vegetation gradient

Weathering and ecosystem nutrition are intimately linked through the supply of fresh mineral nutrients from regolith and bedrock (the "geogenic nutrient pathway"). However, the prominence of this link is dependent on the efficiency of nutrient recycling from plant litter (the "organic nutrient cycle"). Isotope ratios of strontium (Sr), an element that behaves similarly to Ca in ecosystems, confer two types of information: radiogenic Sr isotopes inform as to the sources of Sr and the degree of weathering, while stable Sr isotopes constrain partitioning between compartments of the Critical Zone (bedrock, water, secondary solids, and plants). To date, however, neither the reactions nor the mass balance between compartments that fractionate Sr isotopes, nor the fractionation factors involved, are well understood. Here, we present geochemical budgets of Sr (using radio genic and stable Sr isotopes, and Ca/Sr ratios) at four sites along a substantial climate and primary production gradient in the coastal mountains of Chile. We found that Sr release through weathering is isotopically congruent, and released Sr is not strongly isotopically fractionated either during secondary mineral formation or transfer into the exchangeable pool. Despite this, the Sr-88/Sr-86 ratio of bio-available Sr, which should reflect the ratio of dissolved Sr, is higher than that of rock and regolith. We propose that this offset is caused by plants: while Sr-88/Sr-86 in plant organs at the four study sites systematically increased from roots towards their leaves, whole-plant Sr isotope compositions indicate preferential uptake of light Sr into plants (with a fractionation of up to -0.3 parts per thousand relative to the bio-available pool). Despite this strong biological fractionation, Sr-88/Sr-86 ratios in bio-available Sr do not covary with biomass production across our study sites, because with greater plant growth Sr is recycled more times after release by weathering - an isotope-neutral process. Rather, the loss of Sr from the ecosystem in solid organic material sets the isotope ratio of dissolved or bio-available Sr. Organic solids thus appear to constitute a significant export path of elements released during weathering, with the removal of solid plant debris reducing the recycling factor of Sr, and possibly that of other mineral nutrients too

HELGES: Helmholtz Laboratory for the Geochemistry of the Earth Surface

New developments in Geochemistry during the last two decades have revolutionized our understanding of the processes that shape Earth's surface. Here, complex interactions occur between the tectonic forces acting from within the Earth and the exogenic forces like climate that are strongly modulated by biota and, increasingly today, by human activity. Within the Helmholtz Laboratory for the Geochemistry of the Earth Surface (HELGES) of the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, it is our goal to quantify the rates and fluxes of these processes in detail and to develop new techniques to fingerprint them over various temporal and spatial scales. We use mass spectrometry facilities to analyze metal stable isotopes, element concentrations and cosmogenic nuclides to fingerprint and quantify geomorphological changes driven by erosion and weathering processes. We use these novel geochemical tools, to quantify, for example, the recycling of metals in plants after their release during weathering of rocks and soils, soil formation and its erosion rates, and mechanisms and speed of sediment transport through drainage basins. Our research is thus dedicated towards understanding material turnover rates at the Earth's surface by using geochemical fingerprints

Glaciation's topographic control on Holocene erosion at the eastern edge of the Alps

Abstract. What is the influence of glacial processes in driving erosion and uplift across the European Alps? It has largely been argued that repeated erosion and glaciation sustain isostatic uplift and topography in a decaying orogen. But some parts of the Alps may still be actively uplifting via deep lithospheric processes. We add insight to this debate by isolating the role of post-glacial topographic forcing on erosion rates. To do this, we quantify the topographic signature of past glaciation on millennial-scale erosion rates in previously glaciated and unglaciated catchments at the easternmost edge of the Austrian Alps. Newly measured catchment-wide erosion rates, determined from cosmogenic 10Be in river-borne quartz, correlate with basin relief and mean slope. GIS-derived slope–elevation and slope–area distributions across catchments provide clear topographic indicators of the degree of glacial preconditioning, which further correlates with erosion rates. Erosion rates in the easternmost, non-glaciated basins range from 40 to 150 mm ky−1 and likely reflect underlying tectonic forcings in this region, which have previously been attributed to recent (post 5 Ma) uplift. By contrast, erosion rates in previously glaciated catchments range from 170 to 240 mm ky−1 and reflect the erosional response to local topographic preconditioning by repeated glaciations. Together, these data suggest that Holocene erosion across the Eastern Alps is strongly shaped by the local topography relict from previous glaciations. Broader, landscape-wide forcings, such as the widely debated deep mantle-driven or isostatically driven uplift, result in lesser controls on both topography and erosion rates in this region. Comparing our data to previously published erosion rates across the Alps, we show that post-glacial erosion rates vary across more than 2 orders of magnitude. This high variation in post-glacial erosion may reflect combined effects of direct tectonic and modern climatic forcings but is strongly overprinted by past glacial climate and its topographic legacy

Slab breakoff: A model for syncollisional magmatism and tectonics in the Alps

Slab breakoff is the buoyancy-driven detachment of subducted oceanic lithosphere from the light continental lithosphere that follows it during continental collision. In a recent paper Davies and von Blanckenburg [1994] have assessed the physical conditions leading to breakoff by quantitative thermomechanical modeling and have predicted various consequences in the evolution of mountain belts. Breakoff will lead to heating of the overriding lithospheric mantle by upwelling asthenosphere, melting of its enriched layers, and thus to bimodal magmatism. Breakoff will also lead to thermal weakening of the subducted crustal lithosphere, thereby allowing buoyant rise of released crustal slices from mantle depths. In this paper we present a test of this model in the Tertiary evolution of the European Alps. In the Alps, both basaltic and granitoid magmatism occur between 42 and 25 Ma, following the closure of oceanic basins by subduction and continental collision. The granitoids are now well established to result from mixing of basalt with assimilated continental crust. To identify the tectonically crucial origin of the partial mantle melts, we have compiled all published geochemical and isotopic data of numerous mafic dykes occurring throughout the whole Alpine arc. Their trace element and isotopic composition suggests that they have been formed by low-degree melting of the mechanically stable lithospheric mantle. We see no evidence for melting of asthenospheric mantle. It was thus not decompressed to depths shallower than 50 km. Once initiated, rapid lateral migration of slab breakoff will result in a linear trace of magmatism in locally thermal weakened crust. This explains why all Alpine magmatic rocks intruded almost synchronously along a strike-slip fault, the Periadriatic Lineament. A compilation of ages from Penninic high-pressure rocks subducted to depths of up to 100 km shows that subduction took place at circa 55–40 Ma, followed by uplift at 40–35 Ma. From the short time interval between their uplift and the onset of magmatism we infer that both processes have been induced by the breakoff. The slab breakoff model fulfills its predictions in the case of the Alps and therefore supports the assumptions made in the theoretical model on a geological basis. We believe that the characteristic association of magmatic activity with the return of high-pressure rocks to the surface allows the identification of this process in the Earth's mountain belts

Cosmogenic 10Be-derived denudation rates of the Eastern and Southern European Alps

Denudation rates from cosmogenic 10Be measured in quartz from recent river sediment have previously been used in the Central Alps to argue that rock uplift occurs through isostatic response to erosion in the absence of ongoing convergence. We present new basin-averaged denudation rates from large rivers in the Eastern and Southern European Alps together with a detailed topographic analysis in order to infer the forces driving erosion. Denudation rates in the Eastern and Southern Alps of 170-1,400mmky−1 are within a similar range to those in the Central Alps for similar lithologies. However, these denudation rates vary considerably with lithology, and their variability generally increases with steeper landscapes, where correlations with topographic metrics also become poorer. Tertiary igneous rocks are associated with steep hillslopes and channels and low denudation rates, whereas pre-Alpine gneisses usually exhibit steep hillslopes and higher denudation rates. Molasse, flysch, and schists display lower mean basin slopes and channel gradients, and, despite their high erodibility, low erosion rates. Exceptionally low denudation rates are also measured in Permian rhyolite, which has high mean basin slopes. We invoke geomorphic inheritance as a major factor controlling erosion, such that large erosive glaciers in the late Quaternary cold periods were more effective in priming landscapes in the Central Alps for erosion than in the interior Eastern Alps. However, the difference in tectonic evolution of the Eastern and Central Alps potentially adds to differences in their geomorphic response; their deep structures differ significantly and, unlike the Central Alps, the Eastern Alps are affected by ongoing tectonic influx due to the slow motion and rotation of Adria. The result is a complex pattern of high mountain erosion in the Eastern Alps, which has evolved from one confined to the narrow belt of the Tauern Window in late Tertiary time to one affecting the entire underthrust basement, orogenic lid, and parts of the Southern Alps toda

Erratum to: Cosmogenic 10Be-derived denudation rates of the Eastern and Southern European Alps

Denudation rates from cosmogenic 10Be measured in quartz from recent river sediment have previously been used in the Central Alps to argue that rock uplift occurs through isostatic response to erosion in the absence of ongoing convergence. We present new basin-averaged denudation rates from large rivers in the Eastern and Southern European Alps together with a detailed topographic analysis in order to infer the forces driving erosion. Denudation rates in the Eastern and Southern Alps of 170-1,400mmky−1 are within a similar range to those in the Central Alps for similar lithologies. However, these denudation rates vary considerably with lithology, and their variability generally increases with steeper landscapes, where correlations with topographic metrics also become poorer. Tertiary igneous rocks are associated with steep hillslopes and channels and low denudation rates, whereas pre-Alpine gneisses usually exhibit steep hillslopes and higher denudation rates. Molasse, flysch, and schists display lower mean basin slopes and channel gradients, and, despite their high erodibility, low erosion rates. Exceptionally low denudation rates are also measured in Permian rhyolite, which has high mean basin slopes. We invoke geomorphic inheritance as a major factor controlling erosion, such that large erosive glaciers in the late Quaternary cold periods were more effective in priming landscapes in the Central Alps for erosion than in the interior Eastern Alps. However, the difference in tectonic evolution of the Eastern and Central Alps potentially adds to differences in their geomorphic response; their deep structures differ significantly and, unlike the Central Alps, the Eastern Alps are affected by ongoing tectonic influx due to the slow motion and rotation of Adria. The result is a complex pattern of high mountain erosion in the Eastern Alps, which has evolved from one confined to the narrow belt of the Tauern Window in late Tertiary time to one affecting the entire underthrust basement, orogenic lid, and parts of the Southern Alps toda

Silicon uptake and isotope fractionation dynamics by crop species

That silicon is an important element in global bio-geochemical cycles is widely recognised. Recently, its relevance for global crop production has gained increasing attention in light of possible deficits in plant-available Si in soil. Silicon is beneficial for plant growth and is taken up in considerable amounts by crops like rice or wheat. However, plants differ in the way they take up silicic acid from soil solution, with some species rejecting silicic acid while others actively incorporate it. Yet because the processes governing Si uptake and regulation are not fully understood, these classifications are subject to intense debate. To gain a new perspective on the processes involved, we investigated the dependence of silicon stable isotope fractionation on silicon uptake strategy, transpiration, water use, and Si transfer efficiency. Crop plants with rejective (tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, and mustard, Sinapis alba) and active (spring wheat, Triticum aestivum) Si uptake were hydroponically grown for 6 weeks. Using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, the silicon concentration and isotopic composition of the nutrient solution, the roots, and the shoots were determined We found that measured Si uptake does not correlate with the amount of transpired water and is thus distinct from Si incorporation expected for unspecific passive uptake. We interpret this lack of correlation to indicate a highly selective Si uptake mechanism. All three species preferentially incorporated light Si-28, with a fractionation factor 1000 x ln(alpha) of -0.33 parts per thousand (tomato), -0.55 parts per thousand (mustard), and -0.43 parts per thousand (wheat) between growth medium and bulk plant. Thus, even though the rates of active and passive Si root uptake differ, the physico-chemical processes governing Si uptake and stable isotope fractionation do not. We suggest that isotope fractionation during root uptake is governed by a diffusion process. In contrast, the transport of silicic acid from the roots to the shoots depends on the amount of silicon previously precipitated in the roots and the presence of active transporters in the root endodermis, facilitating Si transport into the shoots. Plants with significant biogenic silica precipitation in roots (mustard and wheat) preferentially transport silicon depleted in Si-28 into their shoots. If biogenic silica is not precipitated in the roots, Si transport is dominated by a diffusion process, and hence light silicon Si-28 is preferentially transported into the tomato shoots. This stable Si isotope fingerprinting of the processes that transfer biogenic silica between the roots and shoots has the potential to track Si availability and recycling in soils and to provide a monitor for efficient use of plant-available Si in agricultural production

Feedbacks between the formation of secondary minerals and the infiltration of fluids into the regolith of granitic rocks in different climatic zones (Chilean Coastal Cordillera)

Subsurface fluid pathways and the climate-dependent infiltration of fluids into the subsurface jointly control the intensity and depth of mineral weathering reactions. The products of these weathering reactions (secondary minerals), such as Fe(III) oxyhydroxides and clay minerals, in turn exert a control on the subsurface fluid flow and hence on the development of weathering profiles. We explored the dependence of mineral transformations on climate during the weathering of granitic rocks in two 6 m deep weathering profiles in Mediterranean and humid climate zones along the Chilean Coastal Cordillera. We used geochemical and mineralogical methods such as (micro ) X-ray fluorescence, oxalate/dithionite extractions, X-ray diffraction and electron microprobe mapping to elucidate the transformations involved during weathering. In the profile of the Mediterranean climate zone, we found a low weathering intensity affecting the profile down to 6 m depth. In the profile of the humid climate zone, we found a high weathering intensity. Based on our results, we propose mechanisms that can intensify the progression of weathering to depth. The most important is weathering-induced fracturing (WIF) by Fe(II) oxidation in biotite and precipitation of Fe(III) oxyhydroxides, and by swelling of interstratified smectitic clay minerals that promotes the formation of fluid pathways. We also propose mechanisms that mitigate the development of a deep weathering zone, like the precipitation of secondary minerals (e.g., clay minerals) and amorphous phases that can impede the subsurface fluid flow. We conclude that the depth and intensity of primary mineral weathering in the profile of the Mediterranean climate zone is significantly controlled by WIF. It generates a surface-subsurface connectivity that allows fluid infiltration to great depth and hence promotes a deep weathering zone. Moreover, the water supply to the subsurface is limited in the Mediterranean climate and thus most of the weathering profile is generally characterized by a low weathering intensity. The depth and intensity of weathering processes in the profile of the humid climate zone, on the other hand, are controlled by an intense formation of secondary minerals in the upper section of the weathering profile. This intense formation arises from pronounced dissolution of primary minerals due to the high water infiltration (high precipitation rate) into the subsurface. The secondary minerals, in turn, impede the infiltration of fluids to great depth and thus mitigate the intensity of primary mineral weathering at depth. These two settings illustrate that the depth and intensity of primary mineral weathering in the upper regolith are controlled by positive and negative feedbacks between the formation of secondary minerals and the infiltration of fluids.</p