Revisiting Carbon Flux Through the Ocean's Twilight Zone

@article{Buesseler2007RevisitingCF,
  title={Revisiting Carbon Flux Through the Ocean's Twilight Zone},
  author={Ken O. Buesseler and Carl H. Lamborg and Philip W. Boyd and Phoebe J. Lam and Thomas W. Trull and Robert R. Bidigare and J. K. B. Bishop and Karen L. Casciotti and Frank Dehairs and Marc Elskens and Makio C. Honda and David M. Karl and David A. Siegel and Mary Wilcox Silver and Deborah K. Steinberg and Jim Valdes and Benjamin A. S. Van Mooy and Stephanie E. Wilson},
  journal={Science},
  year={2007},
  volume={316},
  pages={567 - 570}
}
The oceanic biological pump drives sequestration of carbon dioxide in the deep sea via sinking particles. Rapid biological consumption and remineralization of carbon in the “twilight zone” (depths between the euphotic zone and 1000 meters) reduce the efficiency of sequestration. By using neutrally buoyant sediment traps to sample this chronically understudied realm, we measured a transfer efficiency of sinking particulate organic carbon between 150 and 500 meters of 20 and 50% at two… 
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536 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
31
Background Citations
175
Methods Citations
31
Results Citations
13

536 Citations

Reconciliation of the carbon budget in the ocean’s twilight zone
TLDR
It is found that prokaryotes are responsible for 70 to 92 per cent of the estimated remineralization in the twilight zone despite the fact that much of the organic carbon is exported in the form of large, fast-sinking particles accessible to larger zooplankton.
Rapid oxygen utilization in the ocean twilight zone assessed with the cosmogenic isotope 7Be
  • D. Kadko
  • Environmental Science, Geology
  • 2009
The rate of oxygen utilization beneath the sunlit surface ocean provides a measure of the export rate of biologically produced carbon to the deep sea, and its variation with depth suggests where…
A new look at ocean carbon remineralization for estimating deepwater sequestration
The “biological carbon pump” causes carbon sequestration in deep waters by downward transfer of organic matter, mostly as particles. This mechanism depends to a great extent on the uptake of CO2 by…
Attenuation of particulate organic carbon flux in the Scotia Sea, Southern Ocean, is controlled by zooplankton fecal pellets
The Southern Ocean (SO) is an important CO2 reservoir, some of which enters via the production, sinking, and remineralization of organic matter. Recent work suggests that the fraction of production…
Attenuation of sinking particulate organic carbon flux through the mesopelagic ocean
TLDR
There is a significant relationship between the remineralization depth of sinking organic carbon flux in the upper ocean and water temperature, with shallower reminalization in warmer waters, suggesting that predicted future increases in ocean temperature will result in reduced CO2 storage by the oceans.
Multi-faceted particle pumps drive carbon sequestration in the ocean
TLDR
It is proposed that these ‘particle injection pumps’ probably sequester as much carbon as the gravitational pump, helping to close the carbon budget and motivating further investigation into their environmental control.
Seasonal copepod lipid pump promotes carbon sequestration in the deep North Atlantic
TLDR
It is shown that one species, the copepod Calanus finmarchicus overwintering in the North Atlantic, sequesters an amount of carbon equivalent to the sinking flux of detrital material.
Carbon export and transfer to depth across the Southern Ocean Great Calcite Belt
Abstract. Sequestration of carbon by the marine biological pump depends on the processes that alter, remineralize, and preserve particulate organic carbon (POC) during transit to the deep ocean.…
Ecosystem controls on carbon export efficiency from the naturally iron-fertilised phytoplankton bloom over the Kerguelen Plateau
In the ocean, the perpetual 'snowfall' of biogenic marine particles exports organic carbon from the well-lit surface layer to the deep sediments, promoting its sequestration. The efficiency of this…
Observations and modeling of slow‐sinking particles in the twilight zone
The biological carbon pump (BCP) transfers carbon from the surface ocean into the oceans' interior, mainly in the form of sinking particles with an organic component, and thereby keeps atmospheric…
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