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Burial of terrestrial organic matter in marine sediments: A re‐assessment
Author(s) -
Burdige David J.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
global biogeochemical cycles
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.512
H-Index - 187
eISSN - 1944-9224
pISSN - 0886-6236
DOI - 10.1029/2004gb002368
Subject(s) - organic matter , carbon cycle , glacial period , oceanography , interglacial , sedimentary organic matter , geology , earth science , remineralisation , total organic carbon , terrestrial plant , terrestrial ecosystem , environmental science , sediment , physical geography , paleontology , ecosystem , environmental chemistry , ecology , geography , chemistry , inorganic chemistry , fluoride , biology
Calculations based on recent observations indicate that approximately one third of the organic matter presently being buried in marine sediments may be of terrestrial origin, with the majority of this terrestrial organic matter (TOM) burial occurring in muddy, deltaic sediments. These calculations further suggest that the remineralization of terrestrial organic matter in the oceans is also much less efficient than that of marine organic matter. These two underappreciated observations have important implications in terms of our understanding of the controls on the global carbon cycle. From a paleoceanographic perspective, the results presented here also suggest that changes in TOM burial on glacial‐interglacial timescales have the potential to impact the global carbon cycle (i.e., atmospheric CO 2 levels).