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Cycling of black carbon in the ocean
Author(s) -
Coppola Alysha I.,
Druffel Ellen R. M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl068574
Subject(s) - dbc , carbon cycle , cycling , environmental science , carbon fibers , oceanography , radiocarbon dating , dissolved organic carbon , geology , arctic , carbon black , paleontology , chemistry , materials science , geography , ecology , optoelectronics , archaeology , cmos , ecosystem , composite number , composite material , biology , natural rubber , organic chemistry
Black carbon (BC) is a by‐product of combustion from wildfires and fossil fuels and is a slow‐cycling component of the carbon cycle. Whether BC accumulates and ages on millennial time scales in the world oceans has remained unknown. Here we quantified dissolved BC (DBC) in marine dissolved organic carbon isolated by solid phase extraction at several sites in the world ocean. We find that DBC in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans ranges from 1.4 to 2.6 μM in the surface and is 1.2 ± 0.1 μM in the deep Atlantic. The average 14 C age of surface DBC is 4800 ± 620 14 C years and much older in a deep water sample (23,000 ± 3000 14 C years). The range of DBC structures and 14 C ages indicates that DBC is not homogeneous in the ocean. We show that there are at least two distinct pools of marine DBC, a younger pool that cycles on centennial time scales and an ancient pool that cycles on >10 5 year time scales.