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| Titel |
Global patterns of organic carbon export and sequestration in the ocean (Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists) |
| VerfasserIn |
S. Henson, R. Sanders, E. Madsen, F. Le Moigne, G. Quartly |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2012
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 14 (2012) |
| Datensatznummer |
250071655
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| Zusammenfassung |
| A major term in the global carbon cycle is the ocean’s biological carbon pump which is
dominated by sinking of small organic particles from the surface ocean to its interior. Here
we examine global patterns in particle export efficiency (PEeff), the proportion of primary
production that is exported from the surface ocean, and transfer efficiency (Teff), the fraction
of exported organic matter that reaches the deep ocean. This is achieved through
extrapolating from in situ estimates of particulate organic carbon export to the global scale
using satellite-derived data. Global scale estimates derived from satellite data show, in
keeping with earlier studies, that PEeff is high at high latitudes and low at low latitudes, but
that Teff is low at high latitudes and high at low latitudes. However, in contrast to
the relationship observed for deep biomineral fluxes in previous studies, we find
that Teff is strongly negatively correlated with opal export flux from the upper
ocean, but uncorrelated with calcium carbonate export flux. We hypothesise that the
underlying factor governing the spatial patterns observed in Teff is ecosystem
function, specifically the degree of recycling occurring in the upper ocean, rather than
the availability of calcium carbonate for ballasting. Finally, our estimate of global
integrated carbon export is only 50% of previous estimates. The lack of consensus
amongst different methodologies on the strength of the biological carbon pump
emphasises that our knowledge of a major planetary carbon flux remains incomplete. |
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