Drawdown of Atmospheric pCO2 Via Variable Particle Flux Stoichiometry in the Ocean Twilight Zone

Tatsuro Tanioka; Katsumi Matsumoto; Michael W. Lomas

doi:10.1029/2021GL094924

Drawdown of Atmospheric pCO₂ Via Variable Particle Flux Stoichiometry in the Ocean Twilight Zone

Tatsuro Tanioka, Katsumi Matsumoto, Michael W. Lomas

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The strength of the biological soft tissue pump in the ocean critically depends on how much organic carbon is produced via photosynthesis and how efficiently the carbon is transferred to the ocean interior. For a given amount of limiting nutrient, phosphate, soft tissue pump would be strengthened if the carbon (C) to phosphorus (P) ratio of sinking organic matter increases as the remineralization length scale of C increases. Here, we present a new data compilation of particle flux stoichiometry and show that C:P of sinking particulate organic matter (POM) in the ocean twilight zone on average is likely to be higher than the C:P ratio of surface suspended POM. We further demonstrate using a physics-biology coupled global ocean model combined with a theory from first principles that an increase in C:P export flux ratio in the ocean's twilight zone can lead to a considerable drawdown of atmospheric pCO₂.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	e2021GL094924
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	48
Issue number	22
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094924
State	Published - Nov 28 2021
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (OCE‐1827948). In addition, TT acknowledges support from the Simons Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships in Marine Microbial Ecology (Award 724483). We thank Samar Khatiwala for providing technical support on TMM and Iris Kriest for scripts to analyze the model output. We thank Jonathan Lauderdale and an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments and suggestions. The authors acknowledge and thank the numerous principal investigators, researchers, and technicians who have contributed to the BATS time‐series since its inception, and the continued support of BATS by NSF through the current (OCE‐1756054) and previous awards.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

biological pump
carbon cycle
elemental stoichiometry
ocean biogeochemistry
remineralization
twilight zone

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10.1029/2021GL094924

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Cite this

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abstract = "The strength of the biological soft tissue pump in the ocean critically depends on how much organic carbon is produced via photosynthesis and how efficiently the carbon is transferred to the ocean interior. For a given amount of limiting nutrient, phosphate, soft tissue pump would be strengthened if the carbon (C) to phosphorus (P) ratio of sinking organic matter increases as the remineralization length scale of C increases. Here, we present a new data compilation of particle flux stoichiometry and show that C:P of sinking particulate organic matter (POM) in the ocean twilight zone on average is likely to be higher than the C:P ratio of surface suspended POM. We further demonstrate using a physics-biology coupled global ocean model combined with a theory from first principles that an increase in C:P export flux ratio in the ocean's twilight zone can lead to a considerable drawdown of atmospheric pCO2.",

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