Acid rain, zooplankton fecal pellets and the global carbon budget
Some five to seven billion metric tons (BMT) of carbon dioxide are produced each year from fossil fuel burning and forest cutting. Of this, one to several BMT are unaccounted for in the increases in carbon dioxide observed in the atmosphere and dissolved in the sea. Any additional sink for this ''missing'' carbon must be large-scale, increasing and not balanced by feedbacks. Biotic processes of the sea could account for this ''missing'' carbon. One billion metric tons of carbon divided by the area of the sea means that about 2.8 g (new) C must be removed in some way from the surface waters of the sea each year, an amount equal to about 4 percent of the primary production of the open sea. The proposed causal train is: increased nitrogen in rainwater ..-->.. increased summertime primary production in stratified, nitrogen-limited, nutrient-poor oceanic waters ..-->.. increased zooplankton feeding rates ..-->.. increased zooplankton fecal pellet production ..-->.. increased sequestering of carbon below the permanent thermocline via fecal pellet sinking. There is no doubt that this process is working to some extent, but are the rates sufficient to increase the zooplankton fecal pellet production by 2.8 g/(m/sup 2/.yr). About 100 to 200 mg N/m/sup 2/ enter the sea surface each year in rain (an amount equal to all the dissolved nitrate in the upper 100 m of stratified Sargasso Sea water; both quantities are small compared to the amount annually incorporated as primary production). Analysis of the limited data available indicate that the nitrogen concentration of rain has approximately doubled in recent decades. The increase is caused by fixation of nitrogen during fossil fuel burning, which, with increased sulfur emission, causes acid rain.
- OSTI ID:
- 5168029
- Journal Information:
- Biol. Bull.; (United States), Vol. 153:2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
CARBON DIOXIDE
BIODEGRADATION
ACID RAIN
AIR POLLUTION
CARBON
COMBUSTION
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
FECES
FORESTS
FOSSIL FUELS
GASEOUS WASTES
NITROGEN
PHYTOPLANKTON
SULFUR
SURFACE WATERS
ZOOPLANKTON
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
BIOLOGICAL MATERIALS
BIOLOGICAL WASTES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CRYOGENIC FLUIDS
DECOMPOSITION
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUIDS
FUELS
MASS TRANSFER
NONMETALS
OXIDATION
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLANKTON
POLLUTION
RAIN
WASTES
520200* - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)
500200 - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)