Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C517376/1
Geomorpholgy of chemical weathering: linking soils and solutes and modelling the chemistry and form of hillslopes
Fellowship Award
- Fellow:
- Professor J West, University of Oxford, Earth Sciences
- Grant held at:
- University of Oxford, Earth Sciences
- Science Area:
- Terrestrial
- Freshwater
- Earth
- Overall Classification:
- Earth
- ENRIs:
- Natural Resource Management
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Earth Surface Processes
- Biogeochemical Cycles
- Sediment/Sedimentary Processes
- Hydrological Processes
- Soil science
- Climate & Climate Change
- Abstract:
- The continuous interaction between the rocks, water, air, and biota that make up the Earth's surface is fundamental in determining the characteristics of the natural environment. The chemistry of these interactions shapes landscapes, controls nutrient supply and pollutant release to ecosystems, and regulates global element and climatic cycles. One of the most important of these processes is chemical weathering, the breakdown of the rock minerals by surface waters. Weathering is thought to regulate earth's climate over long time scales by influencing the composition of the atmosphere and particularly the concentration of atmospheric CO2. As silicate minerals weather, carbon from the atmosphere is dissolved in river waters and eventually becomes deposited in the oceans. Thus, on long time scales (greater than one million years), weathering leads to the storage of carbon in the rock reservoir, for example in the limestone cliffs of Dover. Much larger masses of carbon are involved in this rock cycle than in the rapid exchange between biomass, atmosphere, and the oceans that controls CO2 on human time scales. My previous research has explored the factors that control this weathering-driven draw-down of carbon from the atmosphere, by looking at weathering rates in present day environments. I looked at the chemistry of river waters, soils, and fresh rocks in order to determine weathering rates in the Himalayas. This filled an important gap in our knowledge and allowed me to compile a global data set unprecedented in scope, which has formed the basis for a predictive, quantitative model of the effect of climate and tectonic activity on weathering. This is crucial to being able to model carbon cycling over millions of years, which is important for understanding the earth's past as well as to predicting the relationship between CO2, climate, and the global environment in the present day. My proposed research project will look at the relationship between the shape of landscapes and chemical weathering. My major focus will be on the importance of soils, which are the products of rock weathering left on hillsides, waiting to be eroded away by streams and rivers. The data we have indicate that weathering rates in soils are particularly high, even when erosion is happening very quickly. This is different from classic studies of weathering which are determined from the chemistry of river waters. What is the relationship between weathering rate in the soil and weathering rate across whole basins as measured in rivers? To address this question I will travel to landscapes in a broad range of environments, from the Himalayas where erosion is happening very quickly but the warm and wet climate lead to thick soils, to the Canadian arctic where erosion is slow but soils are thin because of the cold temperatures and recent glaciation. I will return with soil samples for chemical analysis as well as measurement of the concentration of atoms that are produced by the collision of cosmic rays with minerals, that tell us about the rate that material is being removed from the earth surface. I will compare my field data with theoretical models that I will develop of where weathering happens on hillslopes and how important this is for determining where soils are found. This will also provide information about why hillslopes have the form that they do, which is of additional importance to environmental science because hillslope shape, or morphology, is often used to interpret the environmental history of a region.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C517376/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Postdoctoral Fellow
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Postdoctoral Fellowship
This fellowship award has a total value of £123,272
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Staff | Total - T&S | Total - Other Costs |
|---|---|---|
| £88,372 | £6,400 | £28,500 |
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