A greening Earth has reversed the trend of decreasing carbonate weathering under a warming climate

Sibo Zeng (), Zaihua Liu (), Yongjun Jiang, Nico Goldscheider, Yan Yang, Min Zhao, Hailong Sun, Haibo He, Mingyu Shao and Liangxing Shi
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Sibo Zeng: Chongqing Key Laboratory of Karst Environment & School of Geographical Sciences of Southwest University
Zaihua Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Yongjun Jiang: Chongqing Key Laboratory of Karst Environment & School of Geographical Sciences of Southwest University
Nico Goldscheider: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Yan Yang: Chongqing Key Laboratory of Karst Environment & School of Geographical Sciences of Southwest University
Min Zhao: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Hailong Sun: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Haibo He: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Mingyu Shao: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Liangxing Shi: Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract The response of mineral weathering and its related Weathering Sink for atmospheric CO2 (WSatm-CO2) to global vegetation greening are not well understood. After applying different biogeochemical models and a field experiment to investigate the influence of vegetation greening and warming on the variations of carbonate weathering and WSatm-CO2 on regional and global scales, here we show a significant positive relationship between global carbonate weathering intensity ([HCO3−] as a proxy) and vegetation greenness. During 1982–2018, under a warming climate, [HCO3−] and WSatm-CO2 increase by 5.8% and 6.1%, respectively, due to vegetation greening, in the carbonate areas of Southwest China. Meanwhile, the [HCO3−] in global carbonate areas increases by +2.4% during the same period. By contrast, the [HCO3−] in global carbonate areas decreases by −1.3% without a vegetation function due to the warming. Moreover, we estimated that the carbonate weathering enhancements due to vegetation restoration at the global scale could reach 43.8%. Our results demonstrate that future vegetation restoration is important for the carbon capture by mineral weathering.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-57899-z

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