The reporter recently learned that based on the global topsoil dataset, scientific researchers from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other units have evaluated the impact of climatic and non-climatic factors on phosphorus release during global chemical weathering, and established a quantitative relationship between temperature and phosphorus weathering. Based on this, they found that climate warming will accelerate global phosphorus weathering. Relevant research results were published online in the journal Science Advances.
Phosphorus is one of the basic elements that make up biological cells. It is crucial to the growth and reproduction of marine life and can determine the size of the marine biosphere. In ecosystems, phosphorus mainly comes from the dissolution of phosphate during land chemical weathering, that is, phosphorus weathering.
Previous studies have shown that climate has a significant impact on phosphorus weathering. Quantitative relationships between multiple temperatures and phosphorus weathering have been applied to global models to understand coupled biogeochemical cycling processes over Earth's history. "However, quantitative studies based on empirical data between climate and phosphorus weathering are still lacking." said Guo Licheng, co-corresponding author of the paper and associate researcher at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In response to this scientific problem, researchers integrated 14322 environmental factors and major element data of global topsoil, established a quantitative relationship between temperature and phosphorus weathering, and built a new phosphorus weathering flux and global average based on numerical models. Relationship between temperature.
Data integration results reveal that temperature regulates the migration of phosphorus in soil on a global scale. When the temperature exceeds 12℃, the phosphorus content in soil decreases significantly. "The increase in global phosphorus weathering flux caused by warming will lead to increased marine productivity, rapid consumption of oxygen in water bodies, and large burial of organic carbon in marine sediments, which in turn will trigger global cooling." Guo Licheng said that the new research results also prove that enhanced phosphorus weathering is an important driving mechanism for oceanic hypoxia events.
Guo Licheng said that from the conclusion that warming has accelerated global phosphorus weathering, it can be further speculated that future warming caused by human carbon emissions is likely to lead to rapid loss of phosphorus in global soil, which will endanger global agricultural production and marine ecosystems.