Detrital Carbonate Minerals in Earth's Element Cycles

We investigate if the commonly neglected riverine detrital carbonate fluxes might reconciliate several chemical mass balances of the global ocean. Particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) concentrations in riverine suspended sediments, that is, carbon contained by these detrital carbonate minerals, were quantified at the basin and global scale. Our approach is based on globally representative data sets of riverine suspended sediment composition, catchment properties, and a two-step regression procedure. The present-day global riverine PIC flux is estimated at 3.1 +/- 0.3 Tmol C/y (13% of total inorganic carbon export and 4% of total carbon export) with a flux-weighted mean concentration of 0.26 +/- 0.03 wt%. The flux prior to damming was 4.1 +/- 0.5 Tmol C/y. PIC fluxes are concentrated in limestone-rich, rather dry and mountainous catchments of large rivers near Arabia, South East Asia, and Europe with 2.2 Tmol C/y (67.6%) discharged between 15 degrees N and 45 degrees N. Greenlandic and Antarctic meltwater discharge and ice-rafting additionally contribute 0.8 +/- 0.3 Tmol C/y. This amount of detrital carbonate minerals annually discharged into the ocean implies a significant contribution of calcium (similar to 4.75 Tmol Ca/y) and alkalinity fluxes (similar to 10 Tmol (eq)/y) to marine mass balances and moderate inputs of strontium (similar to 5 Gmol Sr/y) based on undisturbed riverine and cryospheric inputs and a dolomite/calcite ratio of 0.1. Magnesium fluxes (similar to 0.25 Tmol Mg/y), mostly hosted by less-soluble dolomite, are rather negligible. These unaccounted fluxes help in elucidating respective marine mass balances and potentially alter conclusions based on these budgets.

Automated summary

This study quantifies the concentration of particulate inorganic carbon in riverine suspended sediments and finds a significant amount of detrital carbonate minerals discharged into the ocean annually, impacting marine mass balances. These fluxes come mainly from limestone-rich, dry, and mountainous catchments.