Organic carbon burial during OAE2 driven by changes in the locus of organic matter sulfurization

Raven, Morgan Reed; Fike, David A.; Gomes, Maya L.; Webb, Samuel M.; Bradley, Alexander S.; McClelland, Harry-Luke O.

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05943-6

Title: Organic carbon burial during OAE2 driven by changes in the locus of organic matter sulfurization

Journal Article · Fri Aug 24 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05943-6· OSTI ID:1475490

^[1]; Fike, David A. ^[1]; Gomes, Maya L. ^[2]; Webb, Samuel M. ^[3];

^[1]; McClelland, Harry-Luke O. ^[4]

Washington Univ. in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO (United States)
Washington Univ. in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO (United States); Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)
Stanford Univ., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot (Israel)

Ocean Anoxic Event 2 (OAE2) was a period of dramatic disruption to the global carbon cycle when massive amounts of organic matter (OM) were buried in marine sediments via complex and controversial mechanisms. Here we investigate the role of OM sulfurization, which makes OM less available for microbial respiration, in driving variable OM preservation in OAE2 sedimentary strata from Pont d’Issole (France). We find correlations between the concentration, S:C ratio, S-isotope composition, and sulfur speciation of OM suggesting that sulfurization facilitated changes in carbon burial at this site as the chemocline moved in and out of the sediments during deposition. These patterns are reproduced by a simple model, suggesting that small changes in primary productivity could drive large changes in local OM burial in environments poised near a critical redox threshold. In conclusion, this amplifying mechanism may be central to understanding the magnitude of global carbon cycle response to environmental perturbations.

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Research Organization:: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-76SF00515

OSTI ID:: 1475490

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 43 works

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