Miles Carbon Pump and Pelagic food webs

carbon sequestration due to three processes

1. solubility/physical pump

2. Biological pump

3. Carbonate pump

DIC

dissolved inorganic carbon, sequestered with physical/solubility pump

POC

Particulate Organic Carbon, less prevalent than DOC and DIC

DOC

dissolved organic carbon

physical/solubility pump

CO2 (DIC) from atmosphere sequestered into ocean with diffusion and downwelling

% from physical/solubility pump

10%

% from biological pump

70%

% from Carbonate pump

20%

biological pump

process driven by pelagic food web, inorganic carbon is fixed by photosynthetic species that then die and fall to the sea floor (photosynthesis)

Carbonate pump

calcium carbonate formed into shells by organisms such as plankton and mollusks (calcification), fixes PIC but releases some CO2 therefore counter pump

Phytoplankton's role

efficiently fixes carbon with quick turnover and very low biomass. Generate large amounts of DOC to sustain food chain

components of biological carbon pump

organic carbon pump

carbonate pump

components of the organic carbon pump

gravitational pump (BGP)

particle injection pumps

Biological gravitational pump (BGP)

dominates open ocean uses algal aggregates, fecal pellets, carcasses

Eddy subduction pump (ESP)

10% of organic carbon pump - uses currents to pump carbon deep

Mixed layer pump (MLP)

15% of organic carbon pump - seasonal transitions

Mesopelagic Migration Pump (MMP)

20% of organic carbon pump - mesopelagic taxa vertical movement up and down water column

Seasonal lipid pump (SLP)

5% of organic carbon pump - high latitude productivity varies with phytoplankton stores varying (ex high latitude Krill)

Particle injection pumps (PIP)

eddy-subduction pump (ESP)
mixed layer pump (MLP)
mesopelagic migration pump (MMP)
seasonal lipid pump (SLP)

remineralization

The process by which organic matter is broken down by microbial activity, releasing nutrients back into the water column, contributing to the recycling of carbon in marine ecosystems.