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gfdl's home page > gfdl on-line bibliography > 1989: Productivity of the Ocean: Present and Past, 65-83
Is the downward dissolved organic matter (DOM) flux important in carbon transport?
| Toggweiler, J. R., 1989: Is the downward dissolved organic matter (DOM) flux important in carbon transport? In Productivity of the Ocean: Present and Past, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., 65-83. |
| Abstract: A new method for measuring the concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in seawater has recently been applied to the study of the material balance in the oceanic water column. These measurements suggest that the downward transport of organic carbon and nitrogen in the dissolved organic phase is every bit as important as the downward transport in sinking particles. It appears that DOC and DON are the most important organic substrates supporting the consumption of oxygen and the remineralization of nitrate below the thermocline. Although still controversial, these findings are supported by a model study which shows that the vertical transport of organic matter cannot be attributed solely to the fast sinking particles caught in sediment traps. A characterization of the vertical flux as such produces a model nutrient distribution which bears little resemblance to observed distributions. |