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Special Session 2: Changing ocean environment: from the sedimentary perspective -- processes and records |
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Perspectives on the terrestrial organic matter transport and burial along the land-deep sea continuum
Wednesday 11th @ 1115-1130
Room 4
Selvaraj Kandasamy* , State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science and Department of Geological Oceanography, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China
B. Nagender Nath, Geological Oceanography Division, National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa 403004, India
Presenter Email: selvaraj@xmu.edu.cn
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| The global carbon budget of both natural and perturbed carbon cycles is in balance. However, the real issue is disentangling the processes responsible for net sources and sinks of carbon in its reservoirs. Here we review the terrestrial carbon budget and carbon burial rates in the marine environment to better understand the issue of ˇ°missing terrigenous carbonˇ± (export-burial offset) by comparing data- and model- based estimates of continental-wise terrestrial carbon fluxes. Available estimates provide a blurred picture of terrigenous carbon export mainly due to non-availability of dissolved and particulate organic carbon measurements in a number of medium and minor rivers around world, especially in tropics and subtropics. Based on the available/recalculated discharge fluxes of dissolved and particulate organic carbon of Oceania, we hypothesize that quantification of terrigenous organic carbon in suspended particles and tracking their deep sea export during extreme precipitation events in high-standing oceanic islands of subtropical and tropical Indo-Pacific regions can provide additional clues on the export of terrigenous carbon to the deeper oceans. Biogeochemical studies of particles and sediments in Hadal ecosystems located along the Pacific Ocean adjoining to oceanic islands would be useful in revising the global carbon budget, as climate-moderated erosion plays a significant role in these areas in exporting around 10% of global terrestrial organic carbon. Such studies may also help in understanding the mechanism of terrigenous organic carbon transport to deep sea through pulses. |
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