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Revisiting Carbon Flux Through the Ocean's Twilight Zone
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-16, 20:03 authored by Buesseler, KO, Lamborg, CH, Boyd, PW, Lam, PJ, Trull, T, Bridigare, RR, Bishop, JKB, Casciotti, KL, Dehairs, F, Elskens, M, Honda, M, Karl, DM, Siegel, DA, Silver, MW, Steinberg, DK, Valdes, J, Van Mooy, B, Wilson, SThe oceanic biological pump drives sequestration of carbon dioxide in the deep sea via sinking particles. Rapid biological consumption and remineralization of carbon in the "twilight zone" (depths between the euphotic zone and 1000 meters) reduce the efficiency of sequestration. By using neutrally buoyant sediment traps to sample this chronically understudied realm, we measured a transfer efficiency of sinking paniculate organic carbon between 150 and 500 meters of 20 and 50% at two contrasting sites. This large variability in transfer efficiency is poorly represented in biogeochemical models. If applied globally, this is equivalent to a difference in carbon sequestration of more than 3 petagrams of carbon per year.
History
Publication title
ScienceVolume
316Issue
5824Pagination
567-570ISSN
0036-8075Department/School
Institute for Marine and Antarctic StudiesPublisher
American Association Advancement SciencePlace of publication
Washington, USARepository Status
- Restricted