The continent is the second largest carbon sink on Earth’s surface. With the diversification of vascular land plants in the late Paleozoic, terrestrial organic carbon burial is represented by massive coal formation, while the development of soil profiles would account for both organic and inorganic carbon burial. As compared with soil organic carbon, inorganic carbon burial, collectively known as the soil carbonate, would have a greater impact on the long-term carbon cycle. Soil carbonate would have multiple carbon sources, including dissolution of host calcareous rocks, dissolved inorganic carbon from freshwater, and oxidation of organic matter, but the host calcareous rock dissolution would not cause atmospheric CO2 drawdown. Thus, to evaluate the potential effect of soil carbonate formation on the atmospheric pCO2 level, different carbon sources of soil carbonate should be quantitatively differentiated. In this study, we analyzed the carbon and magnesium isotopes of pedogenic calcite veins developed in a heavily weathered outcrop, consisting of limestone of the early Paleogene Guanzhuang Group in North China. Based on the C and Mg isotope data, we developed a numerical model to quantify the carbon source of calcite veins. The modeling results indicate that 4–37 wt% of carbon in these calcite veins was derived from atmospheric CO2. The low contribution from atmospheric CO2 might be attributed to the host limestone that might have diluted the atmospheric CO2 sink. Nevertheless, taking this value into consideration, it is estimated that soil carbonate formation would lower 1 ppm atmospheric CO2 within 2000 years, i.e., soil carbonate alone would sequester all atmospheric CO2 within 1 million years. Finally, our study suggests the C–Mg isotope system might be a better tool in quantifying the carbon source of soil carbonate.
The process of aeolian flux in wild areas is usually unstable due to turbulent fluctuation of airflow. The physical parameters of wind and aeolian flux have strong pulsation characteristics and are even intermittent. Since the classical aeolian flux equations derived from steady sediment transport processes do not take into account the physical parameters such as soil particle properties and airflow turbulence characteristics, they cannot accurately predict the process of sediment transport driven by turbulent wind. Based on the analysis of the variables contained in the classical aeolian flux equations and their effects on the aeolian flux, the soil particle properties and the airflow turbulent fluctuation which influence unsteady sediment transport process, and the delayed response of the unsteady sediment transport process to airflow turbulent fluctuation, then the steady and unsteady sediment transports were defined. Strictly, there is no steady sediment transport process in nature, but the sediment transport process in a short period of time can be roughly considered to be a steady sediment transport process as the fluctuation of sediment transport is very little. Thus, the unsteady sediment transport process in a long-term series can be regarded as series of steady sediment transport processes on an "appropriate time scale" (Δt). The construction principles, variables in unsteady aeolian flux equation, and establishing unsteady aeolian flux equation of the way which is the method of determining each variable by controlling the conditional experiments were put forward. Finally, the foreseeable key issues in the process of establishing the unsteady aeolian flux equation were discussed. 相似文献