Rock weathering and erosion at Earth’s surface regulate the long-term carbon cycle and influence Earth’s habitability. Mountain belts are often considered hotspots of this coupling because tectonic uplift and erosion continuously expose fresh minerals to weathering. However, whether mountain belts act as long-term CO₂ sinks or sources depends strongly on the exposed rock types and climate. WARM focuses on a transect along the Moroccan Atlas, a natural laboratory where carbonate and siliciclastic rocks occur across semi-ardi and mediterranean climate conditions. The project combines geomorphic tools, cosmogenic nuclides, geochemistry, and hyperspectral remote sensing to quantify how erosion, runoff, and lithology control weathering fluxes.
To achieve this, WARM will develop and calibrate new approaches that link field-based geochemical measurements with EnMAP hyperspectral satellite data, enabling regional-scale mapping of weathering intensity. The results will provide new constraints on inorganic carbon fluxes in climate-sensitive mountain belts and improve our understanding of how weathering processes respond to ongoing global warming. This knowledge will help to infer CO2 fluxes from semi-arid settings and to refine global carbon-cycle models. models.
Section involved: 3.2 Organic and Earth Surface Geochemistry ; 1.4 Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics; 4.1 Lithosphere Dynamics and Active Tectonics
Project Members
- Dr. Romano Clementucci (Group Leder)
- Prof. Dr. Dirk Scherler
- Dr. Patrick Frings
- Dr. Hella Wittmann-Oelze
Project Partners
- Dr. Saeid Asadzadeh
- Prof. Dr. Abderrahim Essaifi
- Dr. Ahmed Yaaqoub
- Prof. Dr. Martin Herold
- Prof. Dr. Claudio Faccenna
- Dr. Feng Li
- Dr. Emily Stevenson
Project duration
2025–2028
Funding agency
GFZ Discovery Fellowship