Global carbon export from the terrestrial biosphere controlled by erosion
Abstract
Riverine export of particulate organic carbon (POC) to the ocean affects the atmospheric carbon inventory over a broad range of timescales. On geological timescales, the balance between sequestration of POC from the terrestrial biosphere and oxidation of rock-derived (petrogenic) organic carbon sets the magnitude of the atmospheric carbon and oxygen reservoirs. Over shorter timescales, variations in the rate of exchange between carbon reservoirs, such as soils and marine sediments, also modulate atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The respective fluxes of biospheric and petrogenic organic carbon are poorly constrained, however, and mechanisms controlling POC export have remained elusive, limiting our ability to predict POC fluxes quantitatively as a result of climatic or tectonic changes. Here we estimate biospheric and petrogenic POC fluxes for a suite of river systems representative of the natural variability in catchment properties. We show that export yields of both biospheric and petrogenic POC are positively related to the yield of suspended sediment, revealing that POC export is mostly controlled by physical erosion. Using a global compilation of gauged suspended sediment flux, we derive separate estimates of global biospheric and petrogenic POC fluxes of 157(+74)(-50) and 43(+61)(-25) megatonnes of carbon per year, respectively. We find that biospheric POC export is primarily controlled by the capacity of rivers to mobilize and transport POC, and is largely insensitive to the magnitude of terrestrial primary production. Globally, physical erosion rates affect the rate of biospheric POC burial in marine sediments more strongly than carbon sequestration through silicate weathering. We conclude that burial of biospheric POC in marine sediments becomes the dominant long-term atmospheric carbon dioxide sink under enhanced physical erosion.
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In the modern oxygenated environment, much of the sedimentary organic carbon that is uplifted is oxidized, with the remainder returning to the sediments as 'detrital' organic carbon.
“In the modern oxygenated environment (Fig. 1d), much of the sedimentary organic carbon that is uplifted is oxidized32, with the remainder returning to the sediments as ‘detrital' organic carbon37”
From Atmospheric oxygen regulation at low Proterozoic levels by incomplete oxidative weathering of sedimentary organic carbon (2017) · cites this paper as [37]
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- Authors
- Galy, V., Peucker-Ehrenbrink, B., & Eglinton, T.
- Affiliations
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (US)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Galy, Valier
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2015-05
- Volume
- 521
- Issue
- 7551
- Pages
- 204-207
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W1603770066
- Cited by
- 621
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 62 · 2025: 55 · 2024: 76 · 2023: 68 · 2022: 75 · 2021: 68 · 2020: 50 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 48 · 2017: 45 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 14
- FWCI
- 58.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- Division of Materials Research
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil erosion and sediment transport
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
- Keywords
- particulate organic carbon export, physical erosion, terrestrial biosphere, petrogenic organic carbon, suspended sediment flux, riverine carbon flux, silicate weathering, tectonic forcing, radiative forcing, global carbon budget, catchment characteristics, river systems, carbon sequestration, oxygen reservoir
- MeSH terms
- Atmosphere, Carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Oxygen, Soil, Ecosystem, Geologic Sediments, Rivers, Particulate Matter, Carbon Cycle, Carbon Sequestration
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