when mountains disappear where do they go? …and why it matters to you!

200 million years agoPresent day

When mountains disappear where do they go? …and why it matters to you!

Goals

• Cycles – what your textbook ISN’T telling you

• Study graphs from scientific article & draw conclusions

• Give you real data to graph & draw conclusions

biogeochemistry

The Water Cycle

Image: Campbell, N. and J. Reece. AP Edition Biology. 7th Ed. Pearson Benjamin Cummings.

The Carbon CycleV

Organic

Image: Campbell, N. and J. Reece. AP Edition Biology. 7th Ed. Pearson Benjamin Cummings.

200 million years ago

Mountain matter movement

Images: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Everest_as_seen_from_Drukair2_PLW_edit.jpg, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Appalachian_Mountains.jpg, http://www.dec.ny.gov/education/92668.html

Present day

Weathering

Limestone, not your average rock

Image: http://www.orionstonewholesale.com/lake-michigan-limestone/, www.tums.com

Limestone=

calcium carbonate

= CaCO3

=Inorganic C

What happens

to the

carbon?!

What does this limestone businesshave to do with us

Michiganders?

Reason #1: The world’s largest limestone quarry

Images: Google maps.

Limestone = calcium carbonate

Coccolithophore – marine phytoplankton

Coral reef

Tube-building marine worm

Mollusc

Nautilus

“inorganic”

carbon

Reason #1 (con’t) why is there limestone in Michigan?

300 million

years ago

Reason #2: Row crop agriculture

Images: KBS LTER/Julie Doll & http://nolandfarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Lime-pile-@-Duanes.jpg.

“Lime” = crushed limestone (CaCO3) AKA calcite or

crushed dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2)

Lime buffers soil pH

CO2 + NO3- + Ca2+

HNO3

N fertilizer

CO2

Ca2+ + 2HCO3-

H2CO3

Export to streams

Ca2+, NO3-

Export to streamsCa2+, HCO3

-

Lime

CaCO3

CO 2

source

CO2 sink

Respiration by roots & microbes

Lime weathering buffers (tummy &) soil pH

Image: Bonnie McGill, tums.com

Mississippi River Basin (watershed)

Image: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-076-02/

Dr. Peter Raymond

A

B

HCO

3- con

cent

ratio

n (m

g C/

L)

C

Tota

l mas

s of

HCO

3- exp

orte

d (1

03 g/y

r)

1953

Ohio River

Mississippi River

Rainfall

Ohio River

Mississippi River

2003 More rainfall & tile drains

Ohio River

Mississippi River

1 mL = 20 mg C / L

1 mL = 10 mg C / L

More rainfall

?

1 mL = 20 mg C / L

0.5 L -

1.0 L -

EXPORT: 20 mg/L * 0.5 L = 10 mg 10 mg/L * 1 L = 10 mg 20 mg/L * 1 L = 20 mg ?

A

B

HCO

3- con

cent

ratio

n (m

g C/

L)

C

Tota

l mas

s of

HCO

3- exp

orte

d (1

03 g/y

r)

1. Why is the alkalinity not being diluted by the increased water?

2. What else has changed in the Mississippi watershed since 1953?

Graphing steps1. Plot points.2. Use ruler to draw trend line.3. Give your graph a title.4. What conclusions can you draw from the graph?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 800

5

10

15

20

25

% Cropland

HCO

3- e

xpor

t (g

C m

-2

yr-1

)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 9002468

101214161820

% Forest

HCO

3- e

xpor

t (g

C m

-2

yr-1

)

Conclusions

2. Whether weathering mountains, liming ag soils or eating TUMS: C is neither created nor destroyed, it enters a different phase—dissolved HCO3

- or CO2 gas—of the C cycle.

3. Ecosystem ecology is the study of natural processes (such as weathering) and cycles (such as C cycle) at large scales (such as the Mississippi River Basin).

1. Agricultural lime is both a source of CO2 to the atmosphere and a sink for C (as HCO3

- or alkalinity in water).

This lesson was brought to you by the KBS GK-12 Partnership. For more information go to:

http://kbsgk12project.kbs.msu.edu/lessons/