Global sensitivity of weathering rates to atmospheric CO_2 under the assumption of saturated river discharge

摘要

The sensitivity of the global river-borne flux of Ca~(2+) to atmospheric pCO_2 was obtained from model simulations under the assumption of saturation of CaCO_3. The response was subdivided into contributions from changes in runoff, temperature and partial CO_2 pressure and these were then used to parameterize the different direct and indirect effects of a changing climate on carbonate weathering and equilibria. The parameterizations are comparable/compatible to those of Walker et al. (1981) for silicate weathering, but are taken directly from models demonstrating the potential of this approach in weathering studies.