Association of sinking organic matter with various types of mineral ballast in the deep sea: Implications for the rain ratio
Open accessAbstract
We compiled and standardized sediment trap data below 1000 m depth from 52 locations around the globe to infer the implications of the Armstrong et al. [2002] “ballast” model to the ratio of organic carbon to calcium carbonate in the deep sea (the rain ratio). We distinguished three forms of mineral ballast: calcium carbonate, opal, and lithogenic material. We concur with Armstrong et al. [2002] that organic carbon sinking fluxes correlate tightly with mineral fluxes. Based on the correlations seen in the trap data, we conclude that most of the organic carbon rain in the deep sea is carried by calcium carbonate, because it is denser than opal and more abundant than terrigenous material. This analysis explains the constancy of the organic carbon to calcium carbonate rain ratio in the deep sea today, and argues against large changes in the mean value of this ratio in the past. However, sediment trap data show variability in the ratio in areas of high relative calcium carbonate export (mass CaCO 3/mass ratio > 0.4), unexplainable by the model, leaving open the possibility of regional variations in the rain ratio in the past.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The analysis has not included a possible dependence of carbonate rain fluxes on the efficiency of organic matter transport into the deep ocean, which would reduce the predicted impact of CO2-calcification feedback on the sediments.
“One caveat to this analysis it that we have not included a possible dependence of carbonate rain fluxes on the efficiency of organic matter transport into the deep ocean [Armstrong et al., 2002;Klaas and Archer, 2002], which would reduce our predicted impact of CO 2calcification feedback on the sediments [Ridgwell, 2003].”
From Regulation of atmospheric CO <sub>2</sub> by deep‐sea sediments in an Earth system model (2007) · cites this paper as Klaas and Archer, 2002
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Ocean Acidification: The Other CO <sub>2</sub> Problem
Doney, S. C., Fabry, V. J., Feely, R. A., & Kleypas, J. A. (2009) · Annual Review of Marine Science · doi:10.1146/annurev.marine.010908.163834 · Cited by 4,173 · see citing works
The oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans
Holland, H. D. (2006) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2006.1838 · Cited by 1,535 · see citing works
Quantifying the degradation of organic matter in marine sediments: A review and synthesis
Arndt, S., Jørgensen, B. B., LaRowe, D. E., Middelburg, J. J., Pancost, R. D., & Regnier, P. (2013) · Earth-Science Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2013.02.008 · Cited by 1,040 · see citing works
Upper ocean ecosystem dynamics and iron cycling in a global three-dimensional model
Moore, J. K., Doney, S. C., & Lindsay, K. (2004) · Global Biogeochemical Cycles · doi:10.1029/2004gb002220 · Cited by 889 · see citing works
The role of the global carbonate cycle in the regulation and evolution of the Earth system
RIDGWELL, A., & ZEEBE, R. (2005) · Earth and Planetary Science Letters · doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2005.03.006 · Cited by 705 · see citing works
Assessing ocean alkalinity for carbon sequestration
Renforth, P., & Henderson, G. (2017) · Reviews of Geophysics · doi:10.1002/2016rg000533 · Cited by 655 · see citing works
Attenuation of sinking particulate organic carbon flux through the mesopelagic ocean
Marsay, C. M., Sanders, R. J., Henson, S. A., Pabortsava, K., Achterberg, E. P., & Lampitt, R. S. (2015) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1415311112 · Cited by 358 · see citing works
Jin, X., Gruber, N., Dunne, J. P., Sarmiento, J. L., & Armstrong, R. A. (2006) · Global Biogeochemical Cycles · doi:10.1029/2005gb002532 · Cited by 250 · see citing works
Regulation of atmospheric CO <sub>2</sub> by deep‐sea sediments in an Earth system model
Ridgwell, A., & Hargreaves, J. C. (2007) · Global Biogeochemical Cycles · doi:10.1029/2006gb002764 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Temperature and oxygen dependence of the remineralization of organic matter
Laufkötter, C., John, J. G., Stock, C. A., & Dunne, J. P. (2017) · Global Biogeochemical Cycles · doi:10.1002/2017gb005643 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
Effect of temperature‐dependent organic carbon decay on atmospheric pCO <sub>2</sub>
Matsumoto, K., Hashioka, T., & Yamanaka, Y. (2007) · Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences · doi:10.1029/2006jg000187 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Late Proterozoic Transitions in Climate, Oxygen, and Tectonics, and the Rise of Complex Life
Planavsky, N. J., Tarhan, L. G., Bellefroid, E. J., Evans, D. A. D., Reinhard, C. T., Love, G. D., & Lyons, T. W. (2015) · The Paleontological Society Papers · doi:10.1017/s1089332600002965 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
- Authors
- Klaas, C., & Archer, D. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- Venue
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2002-12
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 4
- ISSN
- 0886-6236 (ISSN-L)
- 1944-9224
- OpenAlex
- W2098530244
- Cited by
- 821
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 31 · 2025: 27 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 53 · 2020: 31 · 2019: 40 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 42 · 2016: 43 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 36 · 2013: 35 · 2012: 26
- FWCI
- 12.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles (publishedVersion)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar-und Meeresforschung (Alfred-Wegener-Institut) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy (FG0200ER63011)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Keywords
- organic carbon flux, calcium carbonate flux, opal, lithogenic material, terrigenous material
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
