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Multi-faceted particle pumps drive carbon sequestration in the ocean

Nature volume 568, pages 327–335 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

The ocean’s ability to sequester carbon away from the atmosphere exerts an important control on global climate. The biological pump drives carbon storage in the deep ocean and is thought to function via gravitational settling of organic particles from surface waters. However, the settling flux alone is often insufficient to balance mesopelagic carbon budgets or to meet the demands of subsurface biota. Here we review additional biological and physical mechanisms that inject suspended and sinking particles to depth. We propose that these ‘particle injection pumps’ probably sequester as much carbon as the gravitational pump, helping to close the carbon budget and motivating further investigation into their environmental control.

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Fig. 1: Interplay between particle characteristics, mode of export (BGP or PIP), delivery depth and larger-scale ocean circulation for a range of pumps.
Fig. 2: Carbon export and storage by PIPs compared to the BGP.
Fig. 3: Fate of exported organic matter constrained in models from geochemical remineralization tracers.

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Acknowledgements

P.W.B. was primarily supported by the Australian Research Council through a Laureate (FL160100131), and this research was also supported under the Australian Research Council’s Special Research Initiative for Antarctic Gateway Partnership (project ID SR140300001). H.C. acknowledges the support of the European Research Council (remOcean project, grant agreement 246777) and of the Climate Initiative of the BNP Paribas foundation (SOCLIM project). M.L. was supported by CNES, by the ANR project SOBUMS (ANR-16-CE01-0014) and by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grant NNX16AR50G. D.A.S. acknowledges support from NASA as part of the EXport Processes in the global Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) field campaign, grant 80NSSC17K0692. T.W. was supported by National Science Foundation grant OCE-1635414.

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Nature thanks Sarah Giering, Stephanie Henson, Gerhard Herndl, Andreas Oschlies and Paul Wassmann for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Hervé Claustre, Marina Levy, David A. Siegel, Thomas Weber

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Philip W. Boyd

  2. Sorbonne Université & CNRS, Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche-sur-mer (LOV), Villefranche-sur-Mer, France

    Hervé Claustre

  3. Sorbonne Université, LOCEAN-IPSL, CNRS/IRD/MNHN, Paris, France

    Marina Levy

  4. Department of Geography and Earth Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    David A. Siegel

  5. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

    Thomas Weber

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Boyd, P.W., Claustre, H., Levy, M. et al. Multi-faceted particle pumps drive carbon sequestration in the ocean. Nature 568, 327–335 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1098-2

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