Spatial budget of organic carbon flux to the seafloor of the northern North Atlantic (60°N–80°N)

Schlüter, Michael; Sauter, Eberhard; Schäfer, Angela; Ritzrau, Will

doi:10.1029/1999gb900043

Cited by 43 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(36 reference statements)

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“…The equivalent of 16.7 mmol organic carbon m À2 , either in the form of diatoms or faecal pellets, was gently pipetted onto the surface of the experimental sediments (n ¼ 6 in both cases). This represents B10% of the annual carbon flux in this region (Schlü ter et al, 2000). Treatments were randomized across corer deployments.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource quality affects carbon cycling in deep-sea sediments

et al. 2012

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Deep-sea sediments cover B70% of Earth's surface and represent the largest interface between the biological and geological cycles of carbon. Diatoms and zooplankton faecal pellets naturally transport organic material from the upper ocean down to the deep seabed, but how these qualitatively different substrates affect the fate of carbon in this permanently cold environment remains unknown. We added equal quantities of 13 C-labelled diatoms and faecal pellets to a cold water (À0.7 1C) sediment community retrieved from 1080 m in the Faroe-Shetland Channel, Northeast Atlantic, and quantified carbon mineralization and uptake by the resident bacteria and macrofauna over a 6-day period. High-quality, diatom-derived carbon was mineralized 4300% faster than that from low-quality faecal pellets, demonstrating that qualitative differences in organic matter drive major changes in the residence time of carbon at the deep seabed. Benthic bacteria dominated biological carbon processing in our experiments, yet showed no evidence of resource qualitylimited growth; they displayed lower growth efficiencies when respiring diatoms. These effects were consistent in contrasting months. We contend that respiration and growth in the resident sediment microbial communities were substrate and temperature limited, respectively. Our study has important implications for how future changes in the biochemical makeup of exported organic matter will affect the balance between mineralization and sequestration of organic carbon in the largest ecosystem on Earth.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource quality affects carbon cycling in deep-sea sediments

et al. 2012

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“…CWCR habitats cover ∼1671 km 2 of the Norwegian continental shelf (150.000 km 2 , Fossa et al, 2002), while recent ROV observations suggest at least a similar coverage for sponges (Cruise report, R/V Håkon Mosby-cruise #2009615). Using these estimates of seafloor coverage, CWCR and sponge grounds are jointly responsible for 36% of the total benthic respiration on the Norwegian continental shelf, and process 5% of the total primary production in the area (Schluter et al, 2000). Conventional carbon budgets typically only account for soft-sediment respiration and hence, these budgets may significantly underestimate total seafloor carbon cycling and the intensity of the benthicpelagic coupling on continental shelves with coral and sponge reefs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…b Based on (Klitgaard and Tendal, 2004), we assumed a similar coverage for sponges than for corals. c From (Schluter et al, 2000;Huthnance, 2010). (Rovelli et al, 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cold-water coral reefs and adjacent sponge grounds: hotspots of benthic respiration and organic carbon cycling in the deep sea

et al. 2015

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Cold-water coral reefs and adjacent sponge grounds are distributed widely in the deep ocean, where only a small fraction of the surface productivity reaches the seafloor as detritus. It remains elusive how these hotspots of biodiversity can thrive in such a food-limited environment, as data on energy flow and organic carbon utilization are critically lacking. Here we report in situ community respiration rates for cold-water coral and sponge ecosystems obtained by the non-invasive aquatic Eddy Correlation technique. Oxygen uptake rates over coral reefs and adjacent sponge grounds in the Traena Coral Field (Norway) were 9-20 times higher than those of the surrounding soft sediments. These high respiration rates indicate strong organic matter consumption, and hence suggest a local focusing onto these ecosystems of the downward flux of organic matter that is exported from the surface ocean. Overall, our results show that coral reefs and adjacent sponge grounds are hotspots of carbon processing in the food-limited deep ocean, and that these deep-sea ecosystems play a more prominent role in marine biogeochemical cycles than previously recognized.

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“…Observations of surface primary production and chlorophyll concentration as well as particle flux to the deep sea reveal a series of complex, overlapping processes. Nutrient availability, plankton community, food web structure and the hydrodynamic regime have an impact on particle export efficiency [Antia et al, 2001;Bory et al, 2001;Doval et al, 2001;Fischer et al, 2000;Jahnke, 1996;Lutz et al, 2002;Martin et al, 1987;Neuer et al, 2002;Sauter et al, 2001;Schlüter et al, 2000]. There have been several attempts to find relations between sea surface parameters and sediment trap fluxes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Northwest African upwelling and its effect on offshore organic carbon export to the deep sea

Helmke

Romero

Fischer

2005

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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[1] We combined the analysis of sediment trap data and satellite-derived sea surface chlorophyll to quantify the amount of organic carbon export to the deep sea in the upwelling induced high production area off northwest Africa. In contrast to the generally global or basin-wide adoption of export models, we used a regionally fitted empirical model. Furthermore, the application of our model was restricted to a dynamically defined region of high chlorophyll concentration in order to restrict the model application to an environment of more homogeneous export processes. We developed a correlation-based approximation to estimate the surface source area for a sediment trap deployed from 11 June 1998 to 7 November 1999 at 21.25°N latitude and 20.64°W longitude off Cape Blanc. We also developed a regression model of chlorophyll and export of organic carbon to the 1000 m depth level. Carbon export was calculated for an area of high chlorophyll concentration (>1 mg m À3) adjacent to the coast on a daily basis. The resulting zone of high chlorophyll concentration was 20,000-800,000 km 2 large and yielded a yearly export of 1.123 to 2.620 Tg organic carbon. The average organic carbon export within the area of high chlorophyll concentration was 20.6 mg m À2 d À1 comparable to 13.3 mg m À2 d À1 as found in the sediment trap results if normalized to the 1000 m level. We found strong interannual variability in export. The period autumn 1998 to summer 1999 was exceeding the mean of the other three comparable periods by a factor of 2.25. We believe that this approach of using more regionally fitted models can be successfully transferred even to different oceanographic regions by selecting appropriate definition criteria like chlorophyll concentration for the definition of an area to which it is applicable.Citation: Helmke, P., O. Romero, and G. Fischer (2005), Northwest African upwelling and its effect on offshore organic carbon export to the deep sea, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 19, GB4015,

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Spatial budget of organic carbon flux to the seafloor of the northern North Atlantic (60°N–80°N)

Cited by 43 publications

References 52 publications

Resource quality affects carbon cycling in deep-sea sediments

Resource quality affects carbon cycling in deep-sea sediments

Cold-water coral reefs and adjacent sponge grounds: hotspots of benthic respiration and organic carbon cycling in the deep sea

Northwest African upwelling and its effect on offshore organic carbon export to the deep sea

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