Significant contribution of authigenic carbonate to marine carbon burial (original) (raw)

Nature Geoscience volume 7, pages 201–204 (2014) Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Carbon is removed from the Earth’s surface through the formation and burial of carbon-bearing rocks and minerals1,2. The formation of calcium carbonate and its burial in marine sediments accounts for around 80% of the total carbon removed from the Earth’s surface. However, the fraction of calcium carbonate that precipitates in the oceans, versus that which precipitates authigenically in marine sediments, is unclear. Here, we compile measurements of the calcium concentration of pore fluids collected at 672 seafloor sites around the globe to calculate the global flux of calcium within marine sediments. We use these data, combined with alkalinity measurements of pore fluids, to quantify authigenic calcium carbonate precipitation. We estimate that the net calcium flux into marine sediments that can be ascribed to authigenic carbonate precipitation amounts to around 1×1012 mol yr−1. As such, we estimate that authigenic carbonate precipitation accounts for at least 10% of global carbonate accumulation. We show that much of the precipitation occurs along the eastern margins of ocean basins, where organic matter delivery to the sea floor is likely to be high. We suggest that authigenic calcium carbonate precipitation represents a non-negligible component of the global carbon cycle.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 print issues and online access

$259.00 per year

only $21.58 per issue

Buy this article

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Additional access options:

Figure 1: The net flux of authigenic carbonate precipitation and dissolution in marine sediments.

The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

Figure 2: Frequency distribution of the calcium flux within marine sediments.

The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

Figure 3: The calcium flux at sites dominated by carbonate precipitation versus the corresponding alkalinity flux.

The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Berner, R. A. The long-term carbon cycle, fossil fuels and atmospheric composition. Nature 426, 323–326 (2003).
    Google Scholar
  2. Archer, D. The Global Carbon Cycle (Princeton Univ. Press, 2010).
    Google Scholar
  3. Milliman, J. D. Production and accumulation of calcium carbonate in the ocean: Budget of a nonsteady state. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 7, 927–957 (1993).
    Google Scholar
  4. Falkowski, P. et al. The global carbon cycle: A test of our knowledge of earth as a system. Science 290, 291–296 (2000).
    Google Scholar
  5. Milliman, J. D. & Droxler, A. W. Neritic and pelagic carbonate sedimentation in the marine environment: Ignorance is not bliss. Geol. Rundsch. 85, 496–504 (1996).
    Google Scholar
  6. Burdige, D. J., Hu, X. & Zimmerman, R. C. The widespread occurrence of coupled carbonate dissolution/reprecipitation in surface sediments on the Bahamas Bank. Am. J. Sci. 310, 492–521 (2010).
    Google Scholar
  7. Froelich, P. N. et al. Early oxidation of organic matter in pelagic sediments of the eastern equatorial Atlantic: Suboxic diagenesis. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 43, 1075–1090 (1979).
    Google Scholar
  8. Berner, R. A., Scott, M. R. & Thomlinson, C. Carbonate alkalinity in the pore waters of anoxic marine sediments. Liminol. Oceanogr. 12, 365–368 (1970).
    Google Scholar
  9. Berner, R. A. Early Diagenesis: A Theoretical Approach (Princeton Univ. Press, 1980).
    Google Scholar
  10. Higgins, J. A., Fischer, W. W. & Schrag, D. P. Oxygenation of the ocean and sediments: Consequences for the seafloor carbonate factory. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 284, 25–33 (2009).
    Google Scholar
  11. Schrag, D. P., Higgins, J. A., Macdonald, F. A. & Johnston, D. T. Authigenic carbonate and the history of the global carbon cycle. Science 339, 540–543 (2013).
    Google Scholar
  12. Ben-YaaKov, S. pH buffering of pore water of recent anoxic marine sediments. Limnol. Oceanogr. 18, 86–94 (1973).
    Google Scholar
  13. Zeebe, R. E. Modeling CO2 chemistry, δ13C, and oxidation of organic carbon and methane in sediment porewater: Implications for paleo-proxies in benthic foraminifera. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 71, 3238–3256 (2007).
    Google Scholar
  14. Smith, S. V. & Hollibaugh, J. T. Coastal metabolism and the oceanic organic carbon balance. Rev. Geophys. 31, 75–89 (1993).
    Google Scholar
  15. Fantle, M. S. & DePaolo, D. J. Ca isotopes in carbonate sediment and pore fluid from ODP Site 807A: The Ca2 +(aq)–calcite equilibrium fractionation factor and calcite recrystallization rates in Pleistocene sediments. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 71, 2524–2546 (2007).
    Google Scholar
  16. Walter, L. M., Ku, T. C. W., Muehlenbachs, K., Patterson, W. P. & Bonnell, L. Controls on the δ13C of dissolved inorganic carbon in marine pore waters: An integrated case study of isotope exchange during syndepositional recrystallization of biogenic carbonate sediments (South Florida Platform, USA). Deep Sea Res. II 54, 1163–1200 (2007).
    Google Scholar
  17. Morse, J. W., Gledhill, D. K. & Millero, F. J. CaCO3 precipitation kinetics in waters from the great Bahama bank: Implications for the relationship between bank hydrochemistry and whitings. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 67, 2819–2826 (2003).
    Google Scholar
  18. Sayles, F. L. The composition and diagenesis of interstitial solutions—I. Fluxes across the seawater-sediment interface in the Atlantic Ocean. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 43, 527–545 (1979).
    Google Scholar
  19. Sayles, F. L. The composition and diagenesis of interstitial solutions—II. Fluxes and diagenesis at the water-sediment interface in the high latitude North and South Atlantic. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 45, 1061–1086 (1981).
    Google Scholar
  20. Amiotte Suchet, P., Probst, J-L. & Ludwig, W. Worldwide distribution of continental rock lithology: Implications for the atmospheric/soil CO2 uptake by continental weathering and alkalinity river transport to the oceans. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 17, 1038 (2003).
    Google Scholar
  21. Soetaert, K., Hofmann, A. F., Middelburg, J. J., Meysman, F. J. R. & Greenwood, J. Reprint of the effect of biogeochemical processes on pH. Mar. Chem. 106, 380–401 (2007).
    Google Scholar
  22. Boudreau, B. P. & Canfield, D. E. A comparison of closed- and open-system models for porewater pH and calcite-saturation state. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 57, 317–334 (1993).
    Google Scholar
  23. Joseph, C. et al. Methane-derived authigenic carbonates from modern and paleoseeps on the Cascadia margin: Mechanisms of formation and diagenetic signals. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 390, 52–67 (2013).
    Google Scholar
  24. Boudreau, B. P. Diagenetic Models and Their Implementation: Modelling Transport and Reactions in Aquatic Sediments (Springer, 1997).
    Google Scholar
  25. Ullman, W. J. & Aller, R. C. Diffusion coefficients in nearshore marine sediments. Liminol. Oceanogr. 27, 552–556 (1982).
    Google Scholar
  26. Zeebe, R. E. On the molecular diffusion coefficients of dissolved CO2, HCO3 and CO32− and their dependence on isotopic mass. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 75, 2483–2498 (2011).
    Google Scholar

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by an ERC Starting Investigator Grant (307582) to A.V.T. J. A. A. Dickson read this paper before submission and his comments greatly improved the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
    Xiaole Sun & Alexandra V. Turchyn

Authors

  1. Xiaole Sun
  2. Alexandra V. Turchyn

Contributions

A.V.T. conceived this project. X.S. conducted the calculations and data analysis. Both authors discussed the results and implications and commented on the manuscript at all stages.

Corresponding author

Correspondence toXiaole Sun.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sun, X., Turchyn, A. Significant contribution of authigenic carbonate to marine carbon burial.Nature Geosci 7, 201–204 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2070

Download citation

This article is cited by