Carbon Cycle Imbalances on Arid Terrestrial Planets with Implications for Venus

TL;DR

This paper models the geologic carbon cycle on arid terrestrial exoplanets, showing that limited surface water can lead to unbalanced CO2 levels and potential habitability loss, with implications for Venus.

Contribution

It introduces a coupled model demonstrating how surface water scarcity affects the carbon cycle stability and habitability of arid exoplanets, including Venus-like planets.

Findings

Planets need at least 20-50% of Earth's ocean mass to maintain a stable carbon cycle.

Arid planets with less water risk runaway atmospheric CO2 increase.

Venus's uninhabitable state may be due to limited surface water destabilizing its carbon cycle.

Abstract

Arid terrestrial exoplanets are potentially abundant and are thus interesting targets in the search for life. In particular, M-dwarf planets such as those in the TRAPPIST-1 system may possess limited surface water, whereas early solar system terrestrials may have had small surface water inventories postmagma ocean solidification. On modern Earth, there is enough surface water for a balanced geologic carbon cycle, meaning silicate weathering balances the volcanic outgassing of CO2. However, on arid planets, there may not be enough surface water for this silicate weathering thermostat to maintain habitable conditions. Here, we show that arid planets enter a regime where weathering cannot keep up with volcanic degassing of CO2. Using a coupled model of the geologic carbon cycle, we find that terrestrial Earth-like planets require an initial surface water inventory of at least ~20-50% of Earth's ocean mass to maintain a balanced geologic carbon cycle and temperate surface temperature over 4.5 Gyr of evolution. Arid planets with less than ~20-50% of Earth's oceans cannot maintain high silicate weathering fluxes, potentially causing a runaway increase in atmospheric CO2. In addition, we explore Venus-like instellations and find that limited surface water could have destabilized Venus's carbon cycle, triggering a transition from temperate to uninhabitable. Even if a planet resides in the habitable zone of its star, if arid, it may transition to an uninhabitable state due to an unbalanced carbon cycle. More broadly, arid terrestrial exoplanets are less likely to remain habitable on long timescales, and may thus be poor candidates for biosignature searches.