02019nas a2200157 4500008004100000245005200041210005200093300001100145490000800156520155500164100001901719700002301738700001701761700001601778856006701794 2019 eng d00aEvolution of carbonate and karst critical zones0 aEvolution of carbonate and karst critical zones a1192230 v5273 a
Carbonate terrains (CT) underlie one-fifth of terrestrial, ice-free land and are an important supply of potable water to the world's population, and yet processes endemic to CT critical zones (CZ) and responses of these processes to climatic and anthropogenic pressures are not well understood. Given the rapid dissolution rates and ability to generate well-developed networks of secondary porosity these landscapes can be highly sensitive to impacts from climate change (e.g., modifications of temperature, precipitation, sea level) and human disturbance (e.g., water withdrawal/diversions, changes in land use/land cover). This special issue includes 16 papers focused on CT-CZ processes and potential responses to climatic and human perturbations. Five major themes emerge from these papers, namely: (1) anthropogenic climate and land use changes alter CT-CZ weathering rate and diagenesis, (2) metal and carbon fluxes in CT-CZ will respond to increasing hydrologic variance caused by climate change, (3) endogenous and exogenous processes operating over short time periods (<10,000 yrs) form landscape patterns in carbonate terrains, (4) rates of carbonate mineral dissolution depend on vadose zone and soil thickness, and (5) open systems may not always promote greater carbonate weathering rates in CT-CZ. These findings reflect the importance of carbonate minerals in Earth's CZ, both in terms of processes unique to carbonate minerals, as well as a predictor of future responses to anthropogenic and environmental changes.
1 aSullivan, P.L.1 aMacpherson, G., L.1 aMartin, J.B.1 aPrice, R.M. uhttps://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0009254119303183