Dissolved black carbon (DBC), defined here as condensed aromatics isolated from seawater via PPL solid phase extraction and quantified as benzene polycarboxylic acid oxidation products, is a significant component of the oceanic dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool. These condensed aromatics are widely distributed in the open ocean and appear to be tens of thousands of years old. As such DBC is regarded as highly refractory. In the current study, the photo-lability of DBC, DOC and coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM; ultraviolet-visible absorbance) were determined over the course of a 28 d irradiation of North Atlantic Deep Water under a solar simulator. During the irradiation DBC fell from 1044 ± 164 nM C to 55 ± 15 nM C, a 20-fold decrease in concentration. Dissolved black carbon photo-degradation was more rapid and more extensive than for bulk CDOM and DOC. Further, the photo-lability of components of the DBC pool increased with their degree of aromatic condensation. These trends indicate that a continuum of compounds of varying photo-lability exists within the marine DOC pool. In this continuum, photo-lability scales with aromatic character, specifically the degree of condensation. Scaling the rapid photo-degradation of DBC to rates of DOC photo-mineralisation for the global ocean leads to an estimated photo-chemical half-life for oceanic DBC of less than 800 yr. This is more than an order of magnitude shorter than the apparent age of DBC in the ocean. Photo-degradation is therefore posited as the primary sink for oceanic DBC and the survival of DBC molecules in the oceans for millennia appears to be facilitated not by their inherent inertness but by the rate at which they are cycled through the surface ocean's photic zone

LabileCompounds that experience rapid turnover within hours to days of release and do not accumulate. Environmentally persistentCompounds that resist rapid microbial degradation, accumulating on land and in the ocean for centuries to millennia.

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Increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide are projected to lead to an increase in sea surface temperatures, potentially impacting marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycling. Here we conducted an indoor mesocosm experiment with a natural plankton community taken from the Baltic Sea in summer. We induced a plankton bloom via nutrient addition and followed the dynamics of the different carbon and nitrogen pools for a period of one month at temperatures ranging from 9.5 °C to 17.5 °C, representing a range of ± 4 °C relative to ambient temperature. The uptake of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and the net build-up of both particulate (POC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were all enhanced at higher temperatures and almost doubled over a temperature gradient of 8 °C. Furthermore, elemental ratios of carbon and nitrogen (C:N) in both particulate and dissolved organic matter increased in response to higher temperatures, both reaching very high C:N ratios of >30 at +4 °C. Altogether, these observations suggest a pronounced increase in excess carbon fixation in response to elevated temperatures. Most of these findings are contrary to results from similar experiments conducted with plankton populations sampled in spring, revealing large uncertainties in our knowledge of temperature sensitivities of key processes in marine carbon cycling. Since a major difference to previous mesocosm experiments was the dominant phytoplankton species, we hypothesize that species composition might play an important role in the response of biogeochemical cycling to increasing temperatures