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Carbon sequestration during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum by an efficient biological pump

Nature Geoscience volume 7, pages 382–388 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

A perturbation of the carbon cycle and biosphere, linked to globally increased temperatures about 55.9 million years ago, characterized the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. Its effect on global oceanic productivity is controversial. Here we present records of marine barite accumulation rates that show distinct peaks during this time interval, suggesting a general increase in export productivity. We propose that changes in marine ecosystems, resulting from high atmospheric partial pressure of CO2 and ocean acidification, led to enhanced carbon export from the photic zone to depth, thereby increasing the efficiency of the biological pump. Higher seawater temperatures at that time increased bacterial activity and organic matter regeneration. Through this process much of the sinking particulate organic matter was probably converted to dissolved inorganic and organic carbon. We estimate that an annual carbon export flux out of the euphotic zone and into the deep ocean waters could have amounted to about 15 Gt during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. About 0.4% of this carbon is expected to have entered the refractory dissolved organic pool, where it could be sequestered from the atmosphere for tens of thousands of years. Our estimates are consistent with the amount of carbon redistribution expected for the recovery from the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum.

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Figure 1: Export productivity before and during the PETM.
Figure 2: Barite content and C isotope changes with depth in sampled cores of PETM age.
Figure 3: BARs and δ13C plotted against relative age (in kyr from before or after the base of the CIE).

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Acknowledgements

Samples were provided by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. This work was supported by National Science Foundation CAREER grant OCE-0449732 (to A.P.). We thank U. Riebesell and U. Passow for discussion on ocean acidification and the biological pump.

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  1. Zhongwu Ma

    Present address: Present address: Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes, Department of Geography, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz California 95064, USA,

    Zhongwu Ma, Ellen Gray, Brandon Murphy, James Zachos & Adina Paytan

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Wesleyan University, Middletown Connecticut 06459, USA,

    Ellen Thomas

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Contributions

A.P., Z.M., E.G., E.T. and J.Z. wrote the manuscript. Z.M. and E.G. processed the sediment samples for wt% barite, BARs and export production calculations. E.T., B.M. and J.Z. contributed to the age models used for BAR reconstructions. A.P. conceived and coordinated the work and proposed the data interpretation model.

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Correspondence to Adina Paytan.

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Ma, Z., Gray, E., Thomas, E. et al. Carbon sequestration during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum by an efficient biological pump. Nature Geosci 7, 382–388 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2139

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