Revisiting Carbon Flux through the Ocean's Twilight Zone

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 316; no. 5824; pp. 567 - 570
• Main Authors: Buesseler, Ken O., Lamborg, Carl H., Boyd, Philip W., Lam, Phoebe J., Trull, Thomas W., Bidigare, Robert R., Bishop, James K. B., Casciotti, Karen L., Dehairs, Frank, Elskens, Marc, Honda, Makio, Karl, David M., Siegel, David A., Silver, Mary W., Steinberg, Deborah K., Valdes, Jim, Van Mooy, Benjamin, Wilson, Stephanie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 27.04.2007; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Animals; Biomineralogy; Carbon - metabolism; Carbon Dioxide; Carbon sequestration; Copepoda - physiology; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Ecosystem; Euphotic zone; Exact sciences and technology; Exports; External geophysics; Food Chain; Geochemistry; Geologic Sediments - chemistry; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Marine; Marine ecosystems; Mineralogy; Ocean currents; Oceanography; Oceans; Opal; Pacific Ocean; Physical and chemical properties of sea water; Physics of the oceans; Phytoplankton - physiology; Primary productivity; Sea-air exchange processes; Seawater - chemistry; Sediments; Silicates; Water geochemistry; Zooplankton; Zooplankton - physiology; Hawaii; Northwest Pacific; Polynesia; Pacific Ocean; Spatial variability; Carbon dioxide; CO2 sequestration; sediment traps; Particulate carbon; Biogeochemical cycle; carbon cycle; ocean-atmosphere interaction; Carbon sequestration; Oceania; Flux density; marine environment; Depth profile; Observation data; Pacific Ocean; primary productivity; organic carbon
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1137959

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 contrasting sites. This large variability in transfer efficiency is poorly represented in biogeochemical models. If applied globally, this is equivalent to a difference in carbon sequestration of more than 3 petagrams of carbon per year.