『Abstract
A key uncertainty in models of the global carbonate-silicate
cycle and long-term climate is the way that silicates weather
under different climatologic conditions, and in the presence or
absence of organic activity. Digital imaging of basalts in Hawaii
resolves the coupling between temperature, rainfall, and weathering
in the presence and absence of lichens. Activation energies for
abiotic dissolution of plagioclase (23.1±2.5 kcal/mol) and olivine
(21.3±2.7 kcal/mol) are similar to those measured in the laboratory,
and are roughly double those measured from samples taken underneath
lichen. Abiotic weathering rates appear to be proportional to
rainfall. Dissolution of plagioclase and olivine underneath lichen
is far more sensitive to rainfall.』
1. Introduction
2. Field methods
3. Abiotic vs. lichen-controlled weathering
Acknowledgments
References