Agricultural acceleration of soil carbonate weathering

John H. Kim, Esteban G. Jobbágy, Daniel D. Richter, Susan E. Trumbore, Robert B. Jackson Abstract Soil carbonates (i.e., soil inorganic carbon or SIC) represent more than a quarter of the terrestrial carbon pool and are often considered to be relatively stable, with fluxes significant only on geologic timescales. However, given the importance of climatic water balance on SIC accumulation, we tested the hypothesis that increased soil water storage and transport resulting from cultivation may enhance dissolution of SIC, altering their local stock at decadal timescales. We compared SIC storage to 7.3 m depth in eight sites, each having paired ...