Quantification of carbon fluxes from the weathering ofvarious rocks in addition to other sources in the land water system is criticalto understand the global carbon cycle and to tackle the inevitable climatechange. Traditional modeling approaches are limited with respect to reproducingempirical estimates. Characterization of coupled water and carbon cycling isutterly complicated due to their heterogeneous and anisotropic properties,especially when anthropogenic activities are also involved. In the big dataera, the improved computational capability along with the new assemblage ofvarying types of geochemical, geophysical, and biological datasets provide us withnew tools to probe carbon cycling-related questions, particularly thosepertaining to the assessment of anthropogenic impacts.

In this presentation, we will demonstrate a fewexamples of our recent research efforts in which we apply various data-drivenapproaches to resolve a few critical carbon cycling-related science questionson multiple spatiotemporal scales. In addition, we will also share our thoughtson what we can benefit from and contribute to the emerging big data evolutionacross the Earth science fields, particularly as geochemists.