Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 43, Issue 19, Pages 10385-10393Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2016GL070359
Keywords
dissolved organic carbon; radiocarbon; ultrafiltration; size reactivity; microbial carbon pump; recalcitrance
Categories
Funding
- UCOP Campus Laboratory Collaboration
- NSF Chemical Oceanography program [OCE 0961980, OCE 1458941, OCE 1436922]
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
- Keck Carbon Cycle AMS Laboratory Postdoctoral Fellowship
- U.S. Department of Energy [W-7405-Eng-48, DE-AC52-07NA27344]
- Directorate For Geosciences [1436922] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Ocean Sciences [1436922] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a major global carbon reservoir, yet its cycling remains poorly understood. Previous work suggests that DOC molecular size and chemical composition can significantly affect its bioavailability. Thus, DOC size and composition may control DOC cycling and radiocarbon age (via C-14). Here we show that DOC molecular size is correlated to DOC C-14 in the Pacific Ocean. Our results, based on a series of increasing molecular size fractions from three depths in the Pacific, show increasing DOC C-14 with increasing molecular size. We use a size-age distribution model to predict the DOC and C-14 of ultrafiltered DOC. The model predicts both large and small surface DOC with high C-14 and a narrow range (200-500Da) of low C-14 DOC. Deep model offsets suggest different size distributions and/or C-14 sources at 670-915m. Our results suggest that molecular size and composition are linked to DOC reactivity and storage in the ocean.
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