Pacific Ocean radiocarbon

Williams, P. M., and E. R. M. Druffel. 1987. Radiocarbon in dissolved organic matter in the central north Pacific Ocean. Nature 330 246—248. 

Wang, X.C., Druffel, E.R.M., and Lee, C. (1996) Radiocarbon in organic compound classes in particulate organic matter and sediments in the deep northeast Pacific Ocean. Geophys. Res. Lett. 23, 3583-3586. 

Wang, X. C., DrufFel, E. R. M., Griffen, S., Lee, C., and Kashgarian, M. (1998). Radiocarbon studies of organic compound classes in plankton and sediment of the northeastern Pacific Ocean. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 62, 1365-1378. 

Sikes E. L., Samson C. R., Guilderson T. P., and Howard W. R. (2000) Old radiocarbon ages in the southwest Pacific Ocean during the Last Glacial period and deglaciation. Nature 405, 555-559. 

Masiello and Druffel (1998) measured the abundance and radiocarbon content of BC (isolated by wet chemical oxidation) in sediment cores from two deep Pacific Ocean sites. They found BC comprises 12-31% of the total sedimentary OC, and was between 2,400 yr and 13,000 yr older than non-BC sedimentary OC (Figure 5). For sediment intervals deposited prior to the Industrial era (i.e., free of BC inputs from fossil fuel utilization), the authors argue that the older ages for BC must be due to storage in an intermediate reservoir before deposition. Possible intermediate pools are oceanic DOC and terrestrial soils. They conclude that if DOC is the intermediate reservoir, then BC comprises 4-22% of the DOC pool. If soils are the intermediate reservoir, then the importance of riverine OC has been underestimated. 

Williams P. M., Oeschger H., and Kinney P. (1969) Natural radiocarbon activity of dissolved organic carbon in the north-east Pacific Ocean. Nature 224, 256-259. 

Druffel E. R. M. (1981) Radiocarbon in annual coral rings from the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Geophys. Res. Lett. 8(1), 59-61. 

Druffel, E.R., P.M. Williams and Y. Suzuki (1989) Concentrations and radiocarbon signatiu-es of dissolved organic matter in the Pacific Ocean. Geophys. Res. Lett. 16, 991-4. 

Druffel, E. R. M. Griffin, S. 1993. Large variations of surface ocean radiocarbon evidence of circulation changes in the southwestern Pacific. Journal of Geophysical Research, 98, 20 249-20 259. 

Williams, P.M., Oeschger, H. and Kinney, P., 1969. Natural radiocarbon activity of the dissolved organic carbon in the North East Pacific Ocean. Nature, 224 256—257. Wilson, D.F., Swinnerton, J.W. and Lamontagne, R.A., 1970. Production of carbon monoxide and gaseous hydrocarbons in seawater relation to dissolved organic carbon. Science, 168 1577—1579. 

Fiadeiro ME (1982) Three-dimensional modeling of tracers in the deep Pacific Ocean, II. Radiocarbon and circulation. Journal of Marine Research 40 537-550. 

One of the first applications of ocean radiocarbon data was as a constraint on the vertical diffusivity, upwelling, and oxygen consumption rates in the deep waters below the main thermocline. As illustrated in Figure 2, the oxygen and radiocarbon concentrations in the North Pacific show a minimum at mid-depth and then increase toward the ocean seabed. This reflects particle remineralization in the water column and the inflow and gradual upwelling of more recently ventilated bottom waters from the Southern Ocean. Mathematically, the vertical profiles for radiocarbon, oxygen (O2), and a conservative tracer salinity (5) can be posed as steady-state, 1-D balances ... 

Comparison of results between GEOSECS and TTO/SAVE shows that the bomb radiocarbon inventory has increased by 36% for the region north of 10° N, by 69% for the equatorial region and by 71% for the region south of 10° S. These data reflect the radiocarbon uptake for the Atlantic Ocean between 1973 (GEOSECS) and 1985 (TTO/SAVE). Along with global bomb radiocarbon distribution, this information provides crucial constraints for the carbon cycle in the ocean. Preliminary results from CGC-91, one of the WOCE cruises, show that the observed increase in bomb radiocarbon inventory from 1974 to 1991 in the northern Pacific Ocean is consistent with the first-order prediction from a box-diffusion ocean model. 

Guilderson, T.P., D.P. Schrag, M. Kashgarian, and J. Southori. 1998. Radiocarbon variability in the western equatorial Pacific inferred from a high-resolution coral record from Nauru Island. Journal of Geophysical Research, C, Oceans 103(11) 24,641-24,650. 

The turnover time and fluxes of DOC into the ocean are obtained by comparing the reservoir size and radiocarbon age. The ocean inventory of DOC is —680 Gt, and nearly all of this carbon resides in the deep sea, where concentration profiles and radiocarbon values are constant with depth. DOC ages by —1,000 yr as deep seawater moves from the Atlantic to the Pacific Basin, but even in the Atlantic, DOC radiocarbon values are significantly depleted relative to dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) (Druffel et al., 1992). DOC persists in seawater through several ocean... 

Wang X.-C. and Druffel E. R. M. (2001) Radiocarbon and stable carbon isotope compositions of organic compound classes in sediments from the NE Pacific and Southern Oceans. Mar. Chem. 73, 65-81. 

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