Evaluating conflicting theories about the influence of mountains on carbon dioxide cycling and climate requires understanding weathering fluxes from tectonically uplifting landscapes. The lack of soil production and weathering rate measurements in Earth's most rapidly uplifting mountains has made it difficult to determine whether weathering rates increase or decline in response to rapid erosion. Beryllium-10 concentrations in soils from the western Southern Alps, New Zealand, demonstrate that soil is produced from bedrock more rapidly than previously recognized, at rates up to 2.5 millimeters per year. Weathering intensity data further indicate that soil chemical denudation rates increase proportionally with erosion rates. These high weathering rates support the view that mountains play a key role in global-scale chemical weathering and thus have potentially important implications for the global carbon cycle.

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Formation of mineral-organic associations is a key process in the global carbon cycle. Recent concepts propose litter quality-controlled microbial assimilation and direct sorption processes as main factors in transferring carbon from plant litter into mineral-organic associations. We explored the pathways of the formation of mineral-associated organic matter (MOM) in soil profiles along a 120-ky ecosystem gradient that developed under humid climate from the retreating Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand. We determined the stocks of particulate and mineral-associated carbon, the isotope signature and microbial decomposability of organic matter, and plant and microbial biomarkers (lignin phenols, amino sugars and acids) in MOM. Results revealed that litter quality had little effect on the accumulation of mineral-associated carbon and that plant-derived carbon bypassed microbial assimilation at all soil depths. Seemingly, MOM forms by sorption of microbial as well as plant-derived compounds to minerals. The MOM in carbon-saturated topsoil was characterized by the steady exchange of older for recent carbon, while subsoil MOM arises from retention of organic matter transported with percolating water. Overall, MOM formation is not monocausal but involves various mechanisms and processes, with reactive minerals being effective filters capable of erasing chemical differences in organic matter inputs.

Liquefaction features and the geologic environment in which they formed were carefully studied at two sites near Lincoln in southwest Christchurch. We undertook geomorphic mapping, excavated trenches, and obtained hand cores in areas with surficial evidence for liquefaction and areas where no surficial evidence for liquefaction was present at two sites (Hardwick and Marchand). The liquefaction features identified include (1) sand blows (singular and aligned along linear fissures), (2) blisters or injections of subhorizontal dikes into the topsoil, (3) dikes related to the blows and blisters, and (4) a collapse structure. The spatial distribution of these surface liquefaction features correlates strongly with the ridges of scroll bars in meander settings. In addition, we discovered paleoliquefaction features, including several dikes and a sand blow, in excavations at the sites of modern liquefaction. The paleoliquefaction event at the Hardwick site is dated at A.D. 908-1336 , and the one at the Marchand site is dated at A.D. 1017-1840 (95% confidence intervals of probability density functions obtained by Bayesian analysis). If both events are the same, given proximity of the sites, the time of the event is A.D. 1019-1337. If they are not, the one at the Marchand site could have been much younger. Taking into account a preliminary liquefaction-triggering threshold of equivalent peak ground acceleration for an M w 7.5 event (PGA 7:5 ) of 0:07g, existing magnitude-bounded relations for paleoliquefaction, and the timing of the paleoearthquakes and the potential PGA 7:5 estimated for regional faults, we propose that the Porters Pass fault, Alpine fault, or the subduction zone faults are the most likely sources that could have triggered liquefaction at the study sites. There are other nearby regional faults that may have been the source, but there is no paleoseismic data with which to make the temporal link.Online Material: Figures showing areas of liquefaction, trench logs, information on dike and sand-blow parameters, dike azimuths, core logs, radiocarbon samples, and OxCal analysis, and tables detailing units exposed in the trenches and stereonets.

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[1] The inventory of soil phosphorus (P) is subject to significant changes over time. The main primary form, bedrock-derived apatite P, becomes progressively lost through leaching, or transformed into more immobile and less plant-accessible, secondary organic and mineral forms. Here we studied the rejuvenating effect of dust deposition on soil P along an active dust flux gradient downwind of a braided river. Along the gradient, we measured soil P fractions to 50 cm depth of six Spodosols and one Inceptisol, supplemented by tree foliage P concentrations. While an increasing dust flux correlates with a twofold increase of foliar P and soil organic P along the gradient, apatite P declines from~50 to 3 g m À2 and total P shows no response. Compared to dust-unaffected Spodosols, depth distribution of total P becomes increasingly uniform and organic P propagates deeper into the soil under dust flux. Further, the effect of topsoil P eluviation attenuates due to higher organic P content and the zone of high apatite P concentrations associated with un-weathered subsoil becomes progressively removed from the upper 50 cm. We interpret these patterns as being consistent with upbuilding pedogenesi and conclude that dust-derived mineral P is assimilated in the organic surface horizon and does not reach the mineral soil. Dust-derived mineral P is temporarily stored in the living biomass and returns to the soil with plant and microbial detritus as organic P, which is subsequently buried by further dust increments. We further conclude that (1) the efficiency of P fertilization of the ecosystem by dust accession is higher than through P advection in dust-unaffected Spodosols and (2) organic P may serve as an important source of labile P in a high-leaching environment.Citation: Eger, A., P. C. Almond, and L. M. Condron (2013), Phosphorus fertilization by active dust deposition in a super-humid, temperate environment-Soil phosphorus fractionation and accession processes, Global Biogeochem.

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