Organic carbon continental shelves

Mayer, L.M. 1994. Surface area control of organic carbon accumulation in continental shelf sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 58 1271-1284. 

Longhurst, A.R., 1983. Benthic-pelagic coupling and export of organic carbon from a tropical Atlantic continental shelf - Sierra Leone. Estuar. coastl. Shelf Sci., 17 261-285. 

Burrows, and transport of solute in them, may contribute to dissolution by enhancing oxic degradation of organic matter near the burrow walls. However, the situation is complex, and depending on factors such as the type of burrow wall produced, cementation rather than dissolution of carbonates may be promoted. Aller s observation that the best carbonate preservation takes place in the most physically disturbed and biologically underdeveloped environments points to the need for studies of continental shelf and slope environments where carbonate dissolution could be even more intense than that observed at the sites studied in Long Island Sound. 

Showers, W. J., and D. G. Angle. 1986. "Stable isotopic chaiacterization of organic carbon accumulation on the Amazon continental shelf." Continental Shelf Research 6, 227-244. 

Pore-water nitrate profiles in marine sediments typically show one of three profile shapes. In sediment with rapid rates of organic matter oxidation relative to rates of solute supply from the overlying water, both oxygen and nitrate concentrations decrease more or less exponentially from overlying water concentrations at the sediment—water interface to zero, with oxygen depletion preceding or simultaneous with nitrate depletion at shallow sediment depth (see 105 m and 440 m profiles in Fig. 6.12). These types of profiles are common in continental shelf and upper slope sediments, and are due to relatively large carbon rain to the sediments (relatively... 

In the Baltic-North Sea transition smdy of Thamdrup and Dalsgaard (2002), anammox contributed 33-67% of total N2 production at continental shelf sites, but just 2% of total N2 production at the site in a coastal bay (Figure 16). The difference between the bay site and the closest continental shelf site was due primarily to an increase in the denitrification rate, rather than a decrease in anaerobic oxidation. Denitrification declined in parallel with declining sediment organic carbon content from the coastal bay seaward. Absolute rates of anaerobic NH4 oxidation were in the range 30-99 p.M d and were lowest at the site where the percent contribution was highest. This pattern is consistent with evidence that anammox organisms are autotrophic, whereas denitrifiers are heterotrophic. 

Plot of total organic carbon-normalized yield, A (mg of the CuO reaction products per 100 mg OC) versus 8 C for surface sediments from the Washington State continental shelf and slope (from Hedges and Mann,... 

The Permian Phosphoria Formation in the northwestern Interior United States contains two phosphatic and organic-ncarbon-rich shale members, the Meade Peak Phosphatic Shale Member and the Retort Phosphatic Shale Member. Ihese rocks were formed at the periphery of a foreland basin between the Paleozoic continental margin and the North American cratonic shelf. The concentration, distribution, and coincidence of phosphorite, organic carbon, and many trace elements within these shale members probably were coincident with areas of optimum trophism and biologic productivity related to areas of upwelling. In the Phosphoria sea upwelling is indicated to have occurred by sapropel that was deposited adjacent to shoals near the east flank of the depositional basin. 

Bailey, G.W., 1991. Organic carbon flux and development of oxygen deficiency on the northern Benguela continental shelf south of 22°S Spatial and temporal variability. In Tyson, R.V. and Pearson, T.H. (eds). Modern and ancient continental shelf anoxia. Geol. Soc. Spec. Puhl., 58, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 171-183. 

Continental margin sediments play a major role for the overall budget of the global carbon cycle in the modern ocean. Most bnrial of organic carbon takes place on the continental shelf, in particnlar in deltaic and other coastal sediments (Berner 1982 Hedges and Keil 1995). Thns, 82% of the bnried organic carbon is stored in shelf sediments... 

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