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Aged black carbon identified in marine dissolved organic carbon
Author(s) -
Ziolkowski L. A.,
Druffel E. R. M.
Publication year - 2010
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 - 10.1029/2010gl043963
Subject(s) - dissolved organic carbon , total organic carbon , radiocarbon dating , deposition (geology) , environmental science , carbon fibers , carbon black , sedimentary rock , environmental chemistry , organic matter , geology , oceanography , chemistry , sediment , geochemistry , paleontology , materials science , natural rubber , organic chemistry , composite number , composite material
Produced on land by incomplete combustion of organic matter, black carbon (BC) enters the ocean by aerosol and river deposition. It has been postulated that BC resides in the marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool before sedimentary deposition and may attribute to its great 14 C age (1500–6500 14 C years). Here we report the first radiocarbon measurements of BC in high molecular weight DOC (UDOM). BC exported from rivers is highly aromatic and <500 14 C years old, while open ocean samples contain less aromatic BC and have an age of 18,000 ± 3,000 14 C years. The low abundance of BC in UDOM (0.5–3.5%) suggests that it is more labile than presently believed and/or the low molecular weight DOC contains a larger proportion of aged BC.