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Extreme storm events, landscape denudation, and carbon sequestration: Typhoon Mindulle, Choshui River, Taiwan

¹ School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1398, USA
² Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1009, USA
³ Academia Sinica, Research Center for Environmental Changes, Taipei 115, Taiwan

Correspondence: *E-mail: goldsmith.35{at}osu.edu

We have performed the first known semicontinuous monitoring of particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes and dissolved Si concentrations delivered to the ocean during a typhoon. Sampling of the Choshui River in Taiwan during Typhoon Mindulle in 2004 revealed a POC flux of 5.00 x 10⁵ t associated with a sediment flux of 61 Mt during a 96 h period. The linkage of high amounts of POC with sediment concentrations capable of generating a hyperpycnal plume upon reaching the ocean provides the first known evidence for the rapid delivery and burial of POC from the terrestrial system. These fluxes, when combined with storm-derived CO₂ consumption of 1.65 x 10⁸ mol from silicate weathering, elucidate the important role of these tropical cyclone events on small mountainous rivers as a global sink of CO₂.

Key Words: chemical weathering • organic carbon • CO₂ consumption • particulate materials • fluxes