Production Versus Dissolution of Pelagic Carbonates

This chapter summarizes the most recent compilations of carbonate reservoir size in the ocean and sediments, as well as the particulate and dissolved fluxes (Fig. 9.5) provided by the above mentioned authors. Coral reefs are probably the best documented shallow-water carbonate environment. Carbonate production on reef flats range as high as 10.000 g CaCOj m yr , with a global mean of about 1800 g CaCOj myr . Totally this amounts to 24.5 10 molyr (Table 9.1) from which 14.5-10 mol yr accumulate and 10-10 mol yr are transported to the deep-sea either by particulate or dissolved export. One of the most uncertain numbers in all these budget calculations are the estimates of the global carbonate production in 

to maintain measured water column profdes of alkalinity and total dissolved inorganic carbon, as well as 11 10 mol yr of pelagic carbonate sedimentation. To solve the problem whether high 

Author Pelagic Burial Dissolution Burial fraction  

Carbonate Reservoir Sizes and Fluxes Between Particulate and Dissolved Reservoirs 

Another important effect, which has been outlined in Chapter 6.2, is the ageing, or better the respiratory enrichment in CO of the deep waters along the flow path from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific causing large differences in saturation state above the seafloor in the Atlantic and the Pacific (Fig. 9.6). 

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