Impact of particle size and soil salinity on weathering of mineral particles under freeze-thaw and drying-wetting cycles
MU Min
LI Wangcheng
WANG Jie
LIU Qiaoling
LI Yangyang
Abstract：[Objective]Freezing-thawing and drying-wetting cycles are important abiotic processes in mineral particle weathering and their effect is modulated by many other processes.In this paper,we investigate the impact of particle size and soil salinity on mineral particle weathering.[Method]Green slate particles were used.The experiment consisted of three particle size treatments:10,20 and 30 mm,and three soil salinity treatments with salt concentration of the soil water being 3,6 and 10 g/L,respectively.Each treatment was subjected to randomized freeze-thaw and drying-wetting cycles.During the experiment,we measured the weathering rate of all particles.[Result]① Soil salinity increased particle weathering rate,but the increase depended on soil water concentration.In the treatments we compared,soil water concentration of 10 g/L gave the best results.For the10 mm particles,their weathering rate increased with soil salinity when they were subjected to 20 and 60 freeze-thaw and drying-wetting cycles.② The weathering rate decreased with particle size,with the weathering rate of the 10 mm particles being two times that of the 30 mm particles.③ The weathering rate increased with the number of freeze-thaw drying-wetting cycles.[Conclusion]Under the influence of freeze-thaw and drying-wetting cycles,the weathering rate of small particles is higher than that of large particle.Soil salinity also increased the weathering rate,albeit the increasing rate depended on soil water concentration.
Keywords：soil coarse grainsfreeze-thaw dry-wet cycleweathering rateweathering into soil
Publication Date：2024-02-28
Online Publishing Date：2026-09-12(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 41-46 )