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Isotopic constraints on carbon exchange between deep ocean sediments and sea water

Nature volume 373, pages 686–689 (1995)Cite this article

Abstract

THE vast reservoirs of organic carbon in marine sediments1–3 have the potential to influence the properties of organic matter in the overlying water column. For example, it has been suggested that marine sediments are a possible source of the old, refractory dissolved organic carbon (DOC) found in deep water3–4. Natural radiocarbon and stable carbon isotope ratios (Δ14C and δ13C) can be used to constrain the role of sediments in the ocean carbon cycle5–8. Here we report the distributions of Δ14C and δ13C associated with dissolved organic and inorganic carbon in sediment pore water, together with those of the particulate sedimentary organic carbon, from two geochemically distinct marine environments. Concentration gradients of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon across the sediment–water interface imply significant diffusive fluxes of these solutes from the sediment to the water column. But the DOC fraction in the sediments is greatly enriched in 14C compared with that in the overlying sea water (by as much as 370‰), indicating that the DOC supplied by sediments to ocean waters must be relatively young, and that its remnant ages in the water column itself.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, Gloucester Point, Virginia, 23062-1346, USA

    James E. Bauer

  2. Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08903-0231, USA

    Clare E. Reimers

  3. Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, California, 92717, USA

    Ellen R. M. Druffel

  4. Marine Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, 92093-0128, USA

    Peter M. Williams

Authors
  1. James E. Bauer
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  2. Clare E. Reimers
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  3. Ellen R. M. Druffel
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  4. Peter M. Williams
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Bauer, J., Reimers, C., Druffel, E. et al. Isotopic constraints on carbon exchange between deep ocean sediments and sea water. Nature 373, 686–689 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/373686a0

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