Estimation of the annual yield of organic carbon released from carbonates and shales by chemical weathering

The aim of this paper is to propose an initial estimation of the annual organic matter yield induced by chemical weathering of carbonates and shales, considering their global surface at outcrop and their organic matter content. The calculation also uses data on river fluxes resulting from carbonate rocks and shales weathering in major world watersheds, published by numerous authors. The results obtained from the studied watersheds have then been extrapolated to a global scale. Despite rather large uncertainty to such an approach, the calculated value of ca. 0.1 Gt implies that the annual organic carbon yield related to carbonates and shales chemical weathering might be a non-negligible component of the global carbon cycle. The individual contributions of different watersheds necessarily depend on the organic matter content of altered rocks. They are also obviously controlled by climatic parameters. The calculated yields do not constitute a direct supply to soils and rivers because of mineralisation when organic carbon is brought in contact with the atmosphere. Even so, the release of fossil organic matter would have implications for the global carbon cycle through the efficiency of the global chemical weathering as a carbon sink. Whatever the chosen hypothesis, the results of this study suggest that the recycled organic yield is a neglected component in the global organic carbon cycle assessment. Because it exists and, in addition, because it might represent a non-negligible carbon pool, fossil organic carbon deserves to be taken into account for a better evaluation of the organic stocks in soils and rivers presently only based on climatic data and current vegetal production.