[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/7291\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003E\u2018Earth breathing\u2019: mountain erosion a missing piece in the climate puzzle\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShifting tectonic plates under the Earth\u2019s surface create volcanoes, which erupt in a profusion of gases and molten rock. But when plates slowly shift over time, they also give rise to mountains \u2013 and bring up carbon-emitting matter that has been buried under the surface for millennia.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs humans pump unprecedented amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, researchers are pushing to understand how the natural carbon cycle works, and how it will be affected by not only the increased carbon in the atmosphere, but the rising temperatures and shifting weather patterns of global climate change.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor millions of years, carbon has lain trapped in the rock of mountains. Some of it was once in the shells of tiny organisms on seafloors or dead trees buried under the weight of soil that cemented into rock over time. But as Earth\u2019s tectonic plates shift over millennia, slabs of rock that once lay at the bottom of the ocean crumpled, buckled or were lifted to the lofty heights of mountains.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018When these rocks are exposed near the surface, the oxygen in the air and in water can react with the organic matter in those rocks and release the carbon as carbon dioxide,\u2019 explained Professor Robert Hilton, a geologist at the University of Durham, UK. \u2018It is like the Earth breathing, this consumption of organic matter and a slow release.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELife as we know it hinges on carbon, and its movement between the land, oceans and atmosphere is called\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/earthobservatory.nasa.gov\/features\/CarbonCycle\/page1.php\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E the \u2018carbon cycle\u2019\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Hilton heads up a project called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/roc-co2.weebly.com\/research.html\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EROC-CO2\u003C\/a\u003E which aims to quantify the contribution of organic carbon in mountain rock to this natural carbon cycle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn previous models, mountains were thought to trap carbon from the atmosphere. Carbonic acid and water erode minerals and rocks, and the carbon eventually flows to the ocean via rivers. But the release of organic carbon through erosion could reduce the amount of carbon we assume is being removed from the atmosphere. These contributions \u2013 and knowing how they will alter as the planet gets hotter \u2013 are important to understand what world we will be living in a century from now.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018It is like the Earth breathing, this consumption of organic matter and a slow release.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EProf. Robert Hilton, University of Durham, UK\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECycle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere are numerous gaps in our understanding of the carbon cycle, mostly about the processes occurring on land as opposed to in the oceans, according to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.mpg.de\/441979\/biogeochemie_wissM41\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EProfessor Susan Trumbore\u003C\/a\u003E, director of the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Germany. \u2018With climate change, changes in the amount of carbon dioxide (available), changes in the ecosystems themselves by changing fauna, new diseases, and new species, the ability to predict the future is poorer. We fundamentally don\u2019t understand these processes,\u2019 she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuring his doctorate, Prof. Hilton recognised the role of mountain erosion as one of these gaps. \u2018I was taken aback that some of these aspects are so poorly understood,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile human-linked carbon emissions and their effects are a major focus of climate research \u2013 they account for around\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/essd.copernicus.org\/articles\/10\/2141\/2018\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E 9,400\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/essd.copernicus.org\/articles\/10\/2141\/2018\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E megatons\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/essd.copernicus.org\/articles\/10\/2141\/2018\/\u0022\u003E of carbon\u003C\/a\u003E, almost 100 times more than mountains weathering or volcanoes \u2013 smaller contributions are also important pieces of the puzzle and occur over longer timescales. Their effects are felt over centuries and are integral to our climate. Anthropogenic carbon emissions, on the other hand, occur on a very short-time scale, causing an unprecedented rate of change in natural systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We need to understand how (mountain weathering) operated in the past,\u2019 said Prof. Hilton. It\u2019s important, he says, because the carbon cycle is so closely linked to Earth\u2019s climate, which in turn set the framework for plant and animal evolution.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnd with mountains and erosion, \u2018the land surface is being refreshed all the time by material moving down slopes, bringing new rocks into contact with the atmosphere and water.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProfessor Sophie Opfergelt, a geologist at UC Louvain in Belgium who investigates the chemical weathering of rocks, describes mountains and weathering like a large reactor.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Mountains are ways of bringing materials into the reactor. When there is an uplift of a mountain or erosion, you expose more minerals and surface to weathering,\u2019 she said. \u2018It also covers some of these materials and stops material from going into the reactor.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFlux\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThrough ROC-CO2, Prof. Hilton and colleagues are developing techniques to measure the rate of carbon emissions, or flux, from mountains.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne technique, which they \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bg.copernicus.org\/articles\/15\/4087\/2018\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Edescribe in a recent paper\u003C\/a\u003E, measures the mountain\u2019s carbon emissions directly by drilling a 40cm deep hole into the rock, and erecting an air-tight chamber over it to measure the amount of carbon being released.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018There is carbon in the atmosphere all around us, and you don\u2019t want to measure that,\u2019 Prof. Hilton said. \u2018When we breathe out, we breathe out a lot of carbon and we\u2019re very sure we don\u2019t want to measure that. When plants breathe out, they release carbon dioxide and we aren\u2019t interested in that either.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Hilton and colleagues avoid contamination by covering the rock with the air-tight chamber and repeatedly emptying it of the gases they collect for analysis. Later, in the lab, they have to prove that the gases did not come from other sources.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAll modern carbon contains carbon-14, an unstable form of carbon that breaks down over time. Ancient carbon from rocks no longer contains any of this radioactive carbon because it has already broken down. \u2018This is critical because otherwise people could just say that you\u2019re measuring carbon from a plant and its roots (inside the rock),\u2019 said Prof. Hilton.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother method is to hunt for the remnants of these weathering reactions and use them to estimate the flux. \u2018The idea here is that when you break down these rocks, you release other things that you might be able to trace. So, for example, we can measure water in a stream or river and say something about the (chemical) reactions happening upstream,\u2019 Prof. Hilton said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1002\/2016JG003615\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E a 2017 paper\u003C\/a\u003E, the authors, including Prof. Hilton, measured the amount of organic carbon particles in the suspended sediments from the Kos\u00f1ipata River in Peru over the course of a year. They found that there was a large discrepancy between the estimated erosion in the Andes mountains and what actually ended up in the river downstream. This raises questions about the actual carbon budget of the Amazon River basin, thought to be one of the planet\u2019s major carbon sinks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EInvestigating\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Hilton is currently investigating carbon fluxes at sites around the world from Canada to France and Switzerland to New Zealand.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018We recognise that we can\u2019t measure flux everywhere,\u2019 Prof. Hilton said. The scales are \u2018too ginormous\u2019 but having a variety of sites means that they can try to characterise flux for different environments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018One of the reasons to do this is to quantify global fluxes, but the more important thing to say is why would this flux change, what controls it, and how it responds to things like changes in temperature.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. Hilton ultimately hopes to describe how flux has changed over the course of centuries or even millennia. \u2018The aspiration is to be able to tell people more about why this process changes over time \u2013 in the distant, geological past or even (predict what will happen) in the next century.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers,\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0169555X16301222?via%3Dihub\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E including Prof. Hilton\u003C\/a\u003E, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0169555X16301222?via%3Dihub\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Ehave shown\u003C\/a\u003E that climate and an increase or decrease in rain and water run-off affect how quickly erosion takes place. The aim is to now understand whether increased erosion could unearth even more carbon that has been lying locked in rock for millennia, and further speed up climate change.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis is a question Prof. Hilton also hopes to answer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018How could this process (flux) change to impact the natural carbon cycle?\u2019 he asked. \u2018(This) affects the lifetime of carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe research in this article was funded by the European Research Council. 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