Chemical weathering and carbon dioxide consumption in a small tropical river catchment, southwestern India

Abstract

Studies done on small tropical west-flowing river catchments located in the Western Ghats in southwestern India have suggested very intense chemical weathering rates and associated CO₂ consumption. Very less studies are reported from these catchments notwithstanding their importance as potential sinks of atmospheric CO₂ at the global scale. A total of 156 samples were collected from a small river catchment in the southwestern India, the Payaswini–Chandragiri river Basin, during pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons in 2016 and 2017, respectively. This river system comprises two small rivers originating at an elevation of 1350 m in the Western Ghats in peninsular India. The catchment area is dominated by biotite sillimanite gneiss. Sodium is the dominant cation, contributing ~ 50% of the total cations, whereas HCO₃⁻ contributes ~ 75% of total anions. The average anion concentration in the samples varied in the range HCO₃⁻ > Cl⁻ > SO₄²⁻ > NO₃⁻ > F⁻, whereas major cation concentration varied in the range Na⁺  > Ca²⁺  > Mg²⁺  > K⁺. The average silicate weathering rate (SWR) was 42 t km⁻² y⁻¹ in the year 2016 and 36 t km⁻² y⁻¹ in 2017. The average annual carbon dioxide consumption rate (CCR) due to silicate rock weathering was 9.6 × 10⁵ mol km⁻²y⁻¹ and 8.3 × 10⁵ mol km⁻² y⁻¹ for 2016 and 2017, respectively. The CCR in the study area is higher than other large tropical river catchments like Amazon, Congo-Zaire, Orinoco, Parana and Indus because of its unique topography, hot and humid climate and intense rainfall.