『Abstract
In a mid-continental North American grassland, solute concentrations
in shallow, limestone-hosted groundwater and adjacent surface
water cycle annually and have increased steadily over the 15-year
study period, 1991-2005, inclusive. Modeled groundwater CO2, verified by measurements of recent samples,
increased from 10-2.05 atm to 10-1.94 atm,
about a 20% increase, from 1991 to 2005. The measured groundwater
alkalinity and alkaline-earth element concentrations also increased
over that time period. We propose that carbonate minerals dissolve
in response to lowered pH that occurs during an annual carbonate-mineral
saturation cycle. The cycle starts with low saturation during
late summer and autumn when dissolved CO2
is high. As dissolved CO2 decreases in the
spring and early summer, carbonates become oversaturated, but
oversaturation does not exceed the threshold for precipitation.
we propose that groundwater is a CO2 sink
through weathering of limestone: soil-generated CO2
is transformed to alkalinity through dissolution of calcite or
dolomite. The annual cycle and long-term increase in shallow groundwater
CO2 is similar to, but greater than, atmospheric
CO2.』
1. Introduction
2. Study area and methods
2.1. Study area
2.2. Geology, physiography, hydrogeology
2.3. Water sampling and analysis
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Annual cycles in measured parameters
3.2. Geochemical speciation modeling
3.3. Long-term trends
3.4. Dissolved CO2 annual cycle
3.5. Implications to mineral weathering
3.5.1. Groundwater residence time
3.5.2. Nitrogen fertilization
3.5.3. Dissolved organic carbon
3.5.4. CO2
4. Summary
Acknowledgments
Appendix. Sampling and analytical methods
A.1. Water-level measurement and water sampling
A.2. Chemical analysis of water and gas
A.3. Scanning electron microscopy
References