Sources and Transport of Inorganic Carbon in the Unsaturated Zone of Karst

This book combines field, laboratory and modelling methods to identify, characterize and quantify sources and fluxes within and between the different compartments: water, rock and air. Inorganic carbon plays an important role in shaping karst features. In the unsaturated zone, the percolating water consumes soil-derived carbon dioxide while dissolving carbonate bedrock and then releases it again while degassing and precipitating calcite in caves. A portion of the released CO2 is returned to the atmosphere through the natural ventilation of caves. This book is an important reference source for all those interested in the global carbon budget, karst geochemistry, cave climate and paleoclimate studies using cave speleothem as proxies.

Autorentext
Milanolo Simone holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin (Italy) obtained after spending 6 months at the TUDelft University (Netherlands) as a recipient of an Erasmus framework scholarship. He completed his PhD studies in Karstology in 2014 at the University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia). He currently works as senior researcher at the Hydro-Engineering Institute Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina). During 2007-2009, he was the recipient of three Marie Curie small grants for participation in scientific events. He is an active caver and speleologist currently affiliated with the Center for Karst and Speleology in Sarajevo.

Inhalt
Introduction.- Site Description.- Materials and Methods.- A Conceptual Model.- Cave Climate.- Carbon Dioxide Sources, Storage and Transport in cave Atmosphere.- Cave Atmosphere Response to Artificial input of Carbon Dioxide.- From Soil to Cave: The Inorganic carbon in Drip water.- Calcite Deposition.- The Isotopic Imprint.- General Conclusions.