Widespread dispersal and aging of organic carbon in shallow marginal seas

The occurrence of pre-aged organic carbon (OC) in continental margin surface sediments is a commonly observed phenomenon, yet the nature, sources, and causes of this aged OC remain largely undetermined for many continental shelf settings. Here we present the results of an extensive survey of the abundance and radiocarbon content of OC in surface sediments from the northern Chinese marginal seas. Pre-aged OC is associated with both coarser (>63 µm) and finer (<63 µm) sedimentary components; measurements on specific grain-size fractions reveal that it is especially prevalent within the 20–63 µm fraction of inner shelf sediments. We suggest that organic matter associated with this sortable silt fraction is subject to protracted entrainment in resuspension-deposition loops during which it ages, is modified, and is laterally dispersed, most likely via entrainment within benthic nepheloid layers. This finding highlights the complex dynamics and predepositional history of organic matter accumulating in continental shelf sediments, with implications for our understanding of carbon cycling on continental shelves, development of regional carbon budgets, and interpretation of sedimentary records

Southern California's megaflood event of ca. 1605 AD linked to large-scale atmospheric forcing

A distinct, 1- to 2-cm-thick flood deposit found in Santa Barbara Basin with a varve-date of 1605 AD ± 5 years testifies to an intensity of precipitation that remains unmatched for later periods when historical or instrumental records can be compared against the varve record. The 1605 AD ± 5 event correlates well with Enzel's (1992) finding of a Silver Lake playa perennial lake at the terminus of the Mojave River (carbon-14-dated 1560 AD ± 90 years), in relative proximity to the rainfall catchment area draining into Santa Barbara Basin. According to Enzel, such a persistent flooding of the Silver Lake playa occurred only once during the last 3,500 years and required a sequence of floods, each comparable in magnitude to the largest floods in the modern record. To gain confidence in dating of the 1605 AD ± 5 event, we compare Southern California's sedimentary evidence against historical reports and multi-proxy time-series that indicate unusual climatic events or are sensitive to changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns. The emerging pattern supports previous suggestions that the first decade of the 17th century was marked by a rapid cooling of the Northern Hemisphere, with some indications for global coverage. A burst of volcanism and the occurrence of El Nino seem to have contributed to the severity of the events. The synopsis of the 1605 AD ± 5 years flood deposit in Santa Barbara Basin, the substantial freshwater body at Silver Lake playa, and much additional paleoclimatic, global evidence testifies for an equatorward shift of global wind patterns as the world experienced an interval of rapid, intense, and widespread cooling

High-resolution carbonate stratigraphy of IMAGES core MD972151 from South China Sea

High-resolution carbonate stratigraphy of the deep-sea core MD972151 from the southwestern South China Sea shows millennial-scale variability similar to oxygen isotopic fluctuations recorded in ice cores from Greenland. In a long term of glacial-interglacial scale, carbonate contents in the interglacial time (up to 25 % by weight) were higher than that in the glacial periods (5-15 % by weight). Even for the last glacial, carbonate contents are relatively high in the interstadial events and low in the stadial horizons. This demonstrates clearly that carbonate content in the continental slope above the lysocline in the southwestern South China Sea is primarily controlled by dilution of terrigenous inputs, which in turn is due to sea-level fluctuations in response to changes of ice volume in high latitude regions

Temporal variability in composition and fluxes of Yellow River particulate organic matter

This study examines temporal variations of the abundance and carbon isotopic characteristics of particulate organic carbon (POC) and specific-source compounds in the context of hydrological variability in the Yellow River. The content and bulk carbon isotopic characteristics (13C and 14C) of POC were relatively uniform over the hydrologic (seasonal) cycle. We attribute these temporally invariant geochemical characteristics to the dominant contribution of loess material to the suspended particulate matter (SPM). In contrast, molecular-level signals revealed that hydrologic conditions exert a significant influence on the proportional contributions of petrogenic and especially fresh plant-derived OC, while pre-aged soil OC is mobilized via deeper erosion processes (e.g., gully erosion, mudslides) and is independent of hydrodynamics and surface runoff. A coupled biomarker-isotope mixing model was applied to estimate the time-varying supply of contemporary/modern biomass, pre-aged soil, and fossil OC components to Chinese marginal seas from the Yellow River. We found that natural (e.g., precipitation) and human-induced (e.g., water and sediment regulation) variations in hydrological regime strongly influence the flux with the magnitude of the corresponding annual fluxes of POC ranging between 0.343 ± 0.122 Mt yr−1 and 0.581 ± 0.213 Mt yr−1, but less strongly infleunce proportions of the different OC constituents. Inter-annual differences in pre-aged soil and fossil OC fluxes imply that extreme climate events (e.g., floods) modulate the exhumation and export of old carbon to the ocean, but the OC homogeneity in the pre-aged mineral soil-dominated watersheds facilitates robust predictions in terms of OC transport dynamics in the past (sediment cores) and in the future

Ocean-related global change alters lipid biomarker production in common marine phytoplankton

Lipids, in their function as trophic markers in food webs and organic matter source indicators in the water column and sediments, provide a tool for reconstructing the complexity of global change effects on aquatic ecosystems. It remains unclear how ongoing changes in multiple environmental drivers affect the production of key lipid biomarkers in marine phytoplankton. Here, we tested the responses of sterols, alkenones and fatty acids (FAs) in the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, the cryptophyte Rhodomonas sp. and the haptophyte Emiliania huxleyi under a full-factorial combination of three temperatures (12, 18 and 24 ∘C), three N : P supply ratios (molar ratios 10 : 1, 24 : 1 and 63 : 1) and two pCO2 levels (560 and 2400 µatm) in semicontinuous culturing experiments. Overall, N and P deficiency had a stronger effect on per-cell contents of sterols, alkenones and FAs than warming and enhanced pCO2. Specifically, P deficiency caused an overall increase in biomarker production in most cases, while N deficiency, warming and high pCO2 caused nonsystematic changes. Under future ocean scenarios, we predict an overall decrease in carbon-normalized contents of sterols and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in E. huxleyi and P. tricornutum and a decrease in sterols but an increase in PUFAs in Rhodomonas sp. Variable contents of lipid biomarkers indicate a diverse carbon allocation between marine phytoplankton species in response to changing environments. Thus, it is necessary to consider the changes in key lipids and their consequences for food-web dynamics and biogeochemical cycles, when predicting the influence of global change on marine ecosystems

Temporal constraints on lateral organic matter transport along a coastal mud belt

Constraints on timescales of lateral transport of organic carbon (OC) over continental shelves and associated influences on the distribution and abundance of sedimentary OC remain sparse. Preferential degradation of labile, young OC during lateral transport results in apparent “diagenetic aging“ of OC. Additionally, sediment translocation can also result in ”transport time-associated aging“ of associated organic matter (OM) as a function of the lateral transport time (LTT). Here, we use a coupled thermal decomposition and radiocarbon (14C) approach to constrain timescales of lateral transport and concomitant loss of OC associated with different grain size fractions of sediments collected from two locations ∼275 km apart along a dispersal pathway on the inner shelf of the East China Sea. The 14C age contrasts between corresponding thermal fractions are used to distinguish these two components of sedimentary OM “aging”. To minimize interferences from hydrodynamic sorting and diagenetic aging of OC accompanying lateral transport, we assess 14C age differences of decomposition products from the most thermally-refractory OC components associated with specific grain size fractions between locations. We show that LTTs vary among different grain size fractions, and examine relationships between LTTs and sedimentary OC loss in order to assess the decomposition of OC as a consequence of lateral transport. We suggest that the decomposition of OC associated with protracted lateral transport exerts a strong influence on OC burial efficiency, with broad implications for carbon cycling over continental shelves

Simultaneous shifts in elemental stoichiometry and fatty acids of Emiliania huxleyi in response to environmental changes

Climate-driven changes in environmental conditions have significant and complex effects on marine ecosystems. Variability in phytoplankton elements and biochemicals can be important for global ocean biogeochemistry and ecological functions, while there is currently limited understanding on how elements and biochemicals respond to the changing environments in key coccolithophore species such as Emiliania huxleyi. We investigated responses of elemental stoichiometry and fatty acids (FAs) in a strain of E. huxleyi under three temperatures (12, 18 and 24 °C), three N : P supply ratios (molar ratios 10:1, 24:1 and 63:1) and two pCO2 levels (560 and 2400 µatm). Overall, C : N : P stoichiometry showed the most pronounced response to N : P supply ratios, with high ratios of particulate organic carbon vs. particulate organic nitrogen (POC : PON) and low ratios of PON vs. particulate organic phosphorus (PON : POP) in low-N media, and high POC : POP and PON : POP in low-P media. The ratio of particulate inorganic carbon vs. POC (PIC : POC) and polyunsaturated fatty acid proportions strongly responded to temperature and pCO2, both being lower under high pCO2 and higher with warming. We observed synergistic interactions between warming and nutrient deficiency (and high pCO2) on elemental cellular contents and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) proportion in most cases, indicating the enhanced effect of warming under nutrient deficiency (and high pCO2). Our results suggest differential sensitivity of elements and FAs to the changes in temperature, nutrient availability and pCO2 in E. huxleyi, which is to some extent unique compared to non-calcifying algal classes. Thus, simultaneous changes of elements and FAs should be considered when predicting future roles of E. huxleyi in the biotic-mediated connection between biogeochemical cycles, ecological functions and climate change

Relationships between grain size and organic carbon 14C heterogeneity in continental margin sediments

Highlights • Continental margin-scale spatial variability in C values among grain size fractions is presented. • Two different hydrodynamic modes influencing in 14C heterogeneity are identified. • A new index (H14 index) is defined to describe overall 14C heterogeneity within marine surface sedimentary OC. Abstract The deposition and long-term burial of sedimentary organic matter (OM) on continental margins comprises a fundamental component of the global carbon cycle. A key unknown in interpretation of carbon isotope records of sedimentary OM is the extent to which OM accumulating in continental shelf and slope sediments is influenced by dispersal and redistribution processes. Here, we present results from an extensive survey of organic carbon (OC) characteristics of grain size fractions (ranging from <20 to 250 μm) retrieved from Chinese marginal sea surface sediments in order to assess the extent to which the abundance and isotope composition of OM in shallow shelf seas is influenced by hydrodynamic processes. Our findings show that contrasting relationships exist between 14C contents of OC and grain size in surface sediments associated with two different hydrodynamic modes, suggesting that transport pathways and mechanisms imparted by the different hydrodynamic conditions exert a strong influence on 14C contents of OM in continental shelf sediments. In deeper regions and erosional areas, we infer that bedload transport exerts the strongest influence on (decreases) OC 14C contents of the coarser fraction, while resuspension processes induce OC 14C depletion of intermediate grain size fractions in shallow inner-shelf settings. We use the inter-fraction spread in 14C values, defined here as 14H , to argue that the hydrodynamic processes amplify overall 14C heterogeneity within corresponding bulk sediment samples. The magnitude and footprint of this heterogeneity carries implications for our understanding of carbon cycling in shallow marginal seas