Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 19 June 1998:
Vol. 280. no. 5371, pp. 1911 - 1913
DOI: 10.1126/science.280.5371.1911
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Black Carbon in Deep-Sea Sediments

C. A. Masiello, E. R. M. Druffel

Black carbon (BC) enters the ocean through aerosol and river deposition. BC makes up 12 to 31 percent of the sedimentary organic carbon (SOC) at two deep ocean sites, and it is 2400 to 13,900 carbon-14 years older than non-BC SOC deposited concurrently. BC is likely older because it is stored in an intermediate reservoir before sedimentary deposition. Possible intermediate pools are oceanic dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and terrestrial soils. If DOC is the intermediate reservoir, then BC is 4 to 22 percent of the DOC pool. If soils are the intermediate reservoir, then the importance of riverine carbon in the ocean carbon cycle has been underestimated.

Department of Earth System Science, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3100, USA.

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Wildfire-Produced Charcoal Directly Influences Nitrogen Cycling in Ponderosa Pine Forests.
T. H. DeLuca, M. D. MacKenzie, M. J. Gundale, and W. E. Holben (2006)
Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 70, 448-453
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Changes in terrestrial ecosystem since 30 Ma in East Asia: Stable isotope evidence from black carbon in the South China Sea.
G. Jia, P. Peng, Q. Zhao, and Z. Jian (2003)
Geology 31, 1093-1096
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)