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Carbon dioxide flux and isotopic composition from sedimentary rock weathering, Draix-Bleone Critical Zone Observatory, France

Publisher
British Geological Survey (BGS)
Updated
28 August 2026
Topic
Not set
Licence
Not set

Summary

The measurements and data were obtained to study the release of carbon dioxide during the chemical weathering of sedimentary rocks, and how these CO2 fluxes were related to environmental parameters (temperature, hydrology). Weathering of sedimentary rocks can result in CO2 release from the oxidation of rock organic carbon oxidation, but also due to the oxidation of sulfide minerals, production of sulfuric acid and subsequent release of CO2 from carbonate minerals. The rock-derived carbon sources are understudied, and form an important part of the geological carbon cycle. The CO2 flux measurements were made on 5 rock chambers (H4, H6, H7, H8 and H13) installed in the Draix-Bleone Critical Zone Observatory, France, on outcrops of Jurassic marls. Measurements and data were collected from December 2016 to May 2019. Regular visits to the site (~4 per year) returned data on total CO2 flux (Total-CO2-flux.csv). This was explored as a function of temperature and ambient hydroclimate (precipitation). The datasets include the total CO2 flux measured at each visit to a chamber, and measurements of the internal chamber temperature. To determine the source of CO2 measured in the chambers, we trapped the CO2 using zeolite sieves and recovered it in the laboratory. The radiocarbon activity (reported as fraction modern, F14C) and its stable isotope composition (d13C) were measured from CO2 collected from chambers H4 and H6 over the sampling period (Radiocarbon-data.csv). These were used in a mixing analysis to partition the source of CO2 using a mixing model approach (Partitioned-CO2-fluxes.csv) as explained in full in the published paper Soulet et al., 2021, Nature Geoscience. We also measured the geochemical characteristics of the bedrocks being measured (rock-geochemical-composition.csv), including the organic carbon concentration, inorganic carbon concentration and their isotopic composition. Finally, we measured environmental variables of interest - the chamber temperature and the air temperature at the Draix-Bleone observatory (chamber-temperature.csv and Air-temperature-at-laval-le-plateau-weather-station.csv, respectively). This research was funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant to Robert Hilton (ROC-CO2 project, grant 678779) and radiocarbon and stable isotope measurements were funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), UK, (NERC Environmental Isotope Facility NEIF Radiocarbon Allocation 2074.1017) to Guillaume Soulet, Robert Hilton and Mark Garnett. Full details of data analysis and interpretation can be found in Soulet et al., 2021, Temperature control on CO2 emissions from the weathering of sedimentary rocks, Nature Geoscience

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Citation Information - Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 28/8/2026
Data 28/8/2026

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Additional information

Source Metadata
XML, HTML
Date added
28 August 2026
Harvest GUID
c4669dd2-0f33-7080-e054-002128a47908
Extent (Latitude)
44.1400° to 44.1400°
Extent (Longitude)
6.3600° to 6.3600°
Dataset reference date (creation)
2021-06-08
Frequency of update
notApplicable
Access constraints
The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.
Responsible party
University of Durham (originator); IFREMER (originator); IRSTEA (originator); NERC Radiocarbon Facility (originator); British Geological Survey (distributor, pointOfContact)
ISO 19139 resource type
dataset
Metadata language
eng

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