Carbon in ocean

Calculated from carbon in ocean biota (3000 Tg) and approximate mass ratio for sulfur to carbon of 1 100. 

Lochte K, Anderson RF, Francois R, Jahnke RA, Shimmield G, Vetrov A (in press) Benthic processes and the bnrial of carbon. In Ocean Biogeochemistiy A JGOFS Synthesis. Fasham M, Zeitzschel B, Platt T (eds)... 

Surface Area of Ocean Carbon in Ocean Surface Layer (0-75 m)... 

Carbon in Intermediate and Deep Ocean Carbon in Ocean Sediments Marine Particulate Carbon Flux... 

Burdige, D.J., Alperin, M.J., Homstead, J., and Martens, C.S. (1992) The role of benthic fluxes of dissolved organic carbon in oceanic and sedimentary carbon cycling. Geophys. Res. Lett. 19, 1851-1854. 

Like all matter, carbon can neither be created nor destroyed it can just be moved from one place to another. The carbon cycle depicts the various places where carbon can be found. Carbon occurs in the atmosphere, in the ocean, in plants and animals, and in fossil fuels. Carbon can be moved from the atmosphere into either producers (through the process of photosynthesis) or the ocean (through the process of diffusion). Some producers will become fossil fuels, and some will be eaten by either consumers or decomposers. The carbon is returned to the atmosphere when consumers respire, when fossil fuels are burned, and when plants are burned in a fire. The amount of carbon in the atmosphere can be changed by increasing or decreasing rates of photosynthesis, use of fossil fuels, and number of fires. 

Fluxes are linear functions of reservoir contents. Reservoir size and the residence time of the carbon in the reservoir are the parameters used in the functions. Between the ocean and the atmosphere and within the ocean, fluxes rates are calculated theoretically using size of the reservoir, surface area of contact between reservoirs, concentration of CO2, partial pressures of CO2, temperature, and solubility as factors. The flux of carbon into the vegetation reservoir is a function of the size of the carbon pool and a fertilization effect of increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Flux from vegetation into the atmosphere is a function of respiration rates estimated by Whittaker and Likens (79) and the decomposition of short-lived organic matter which was assumed to be half of the gross assimilation or equal to the amount transferred to dead organic matter. Carbon in organic matter that decomposes slowly is transferred... 

Carbon in living organic matter in the ocean surface layer. 

The turnover time of carbon in biota in the ocean surface water is 3 x 10 /(4 + 36) x lO yr 1 month. The turnover time with respect to settling of detritus to deeper layers is considerably longer 9 months. Faster removal processes in this case must determine the turnover time respiration and decomposition. 

However, with "only" 1000 Pg emitted into the system, i.e. less than 3% of the total amount of carbon in the four reservoirs, the atmospheric reservoir would still remain significantly affected (20%) at steady state. In this case the change in oceanic carbon would be only 2% and hardly noticeable. The steady-state distributions are independent of where the addition occurs. If the CO2 from fossil fuel combustion were collected and dumped into the ocean, the final distribution would still be the same. 

The case of bacterial reduction of sulfate to sulfide described by Berner (1984) provides a useful example. The dependence of sulfate reduction on sulfate concentration is shown in Fig. 5-4. Here we see that for [SO ] < 5 mM the rate is a linear function of sulfate concentration but for [SO4 ] > 10 itiM the rate is reasonably independent of sulfate concentration. The sulfate concentration in the ocean is about 28 mM and thus in shallow marine sediments the reduction rate does not depend on sulfate concentration. (The rate does depend on the concentration of organisms and the concentration of other necessary reactants - organic carbon in this case.) In freshwaters the sulfate concentration is... 

The distribution of dissolved, total particulate, and living particulate organic carbon in the surface (0-300 m) and deep ocean (>300 m) are summarized in Table 10-6. Recent analytical advances have greatly improved our understanding of the distributions of DOC in the ocean (Hedges and Lee, 1993). The important aspects of this compilation are ... 

Carbon is released from the lithosphere by erosion and resides in the oceans ca. 10 years before being deposited again in some form of oceanic sediment. It remains in the lithosphere on the average 10 years before again being released by erosion (Broecker, 1973). The amount of carbon in the ocean-atmosphere-biosphere system is maintained in a steady state by geologic processes the role of biological processes is, however, of profound importance... 

The subsequent fate of the assimilated carbon depends on which biomass constituent the atom enters. Leaves, twigs, and the like enter litterfall, and decompose and recycle the carbon to the atmosphere within a few years, whereas carbon in stemwood has a turnover time counted in decades. In a steady-state ecosystem the net primary production is balanced by the total heterotrophic respiration plus other outputs. Non-respiratory outputs to be considered are fires and transport of organic material to the oceans. Fires mobilize about 5 Pg C/yr (Baes et ai, 1976 Crutzen and Andreae, 1990), most of which is converted to CO2. Since bacterial het-erotrophs are unable to oxidize elemental carbon, the production rate of pyroligneous graphite, a product of incomplete combustion (like forest fires), is an interesting quantity to assess. The inability of the biota to degrade elemental carbon puts carbon into a reservoir that is effectively isolated from the atmosphere and oceans. Seiler and Crutzen (1980) estimate the production rate of graphite to be 1 Pg C/yr. 

Chen, C.-T.A. (1978). Decomposition of calcium carbonate and organic carbon in the deep oceans. Science 201, 735-736. 

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