Rivers are the major carriers of dissolved black carbon (DBC) from land to ocean; the sources of DBC during its continuous transformation and cycling in the ocean, however, are not well characterized. Here, we present new carbon isotope data for DBC in four large and two small mountainous rivers, the Yangtze and Yellow river estuaries, the East China Sea and the North Pacific Ocean. We found that the carbon isotope signatures of DBC are relatively homogeneous, and the DBC 14C ages in rivers are predominantly young and increase during continuous transport and cycling in the ocean. The results of charcoal leaching experiments indicate that DBC is released from charcoal and degraded by bacteria. Our study suggests that riverine DBC is labile and respired during transport and mixing into the ocean and that residual DBC is cycled and aged on the same time scales as bulk DOC in the ocean.

This article presents a modified method for extraction of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) from seawater for radiocarbon measurement by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Standard tests indicate that the extraction efficiencies of DIC are >96%, and the respective precisions of Δ14C-DIC and δ13C-DIC analyses are 6‰ and 0.1‰ or better. Using the method, we report Δ14C-DIC profiles collected from the shelf and slope in the East China Sea (ECS) of the northwest Pacific Ocean. Both the DIC concentration and Δ14C-DIC in the shelf and slope regions seem primarily affected by the Kuroshio Current. It is estimated that 54–65% of the bottom water in the shelf region could be from the intrusion of Kuroshio intermediate water, which carries a high concentration and low Δ14C values of DIC, and which influenced the DIC and its 14C signature on the shelf. Compared with the Δ14C-DIC profiles at other sites in the northwest Pacific reported previously, it appears that the Δ14C-DIC distributions are mainly controlled by the major oceanic currents in the region, and large variations in Δ14C-DIC occurred mostly in the upper 800 m of the water column. The similarity of Δ14C-DIC at depth suggests that the deep-water circulation patterns have been relatively stable in the northwest Pacific Ocean in the last 20 yr.

The Changjiang (Yangtze River) and Huanghe (Yellow River) are the two largest rivers in China, and they transport large amounts of terrestrial carbon to the coastal waters of the East China Sea and the Bohai Sea. The sources and cycling of riverine carbon in these two large river estuaries, however, have not been well studied. In this article, we present the results of dual isotope (D 14 C and d 13 C) measurements of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) collected in the low reaches of the Changjiang and Huanghe and their estuaries during two cruises in 2014. Our results indicate that both the Changjiang and Huanghe carry very high concentrations of DIC ranging from 1384 lmol kg 21 to 1732 lmol kg 21 and 2711 lmol kg 21 to 4120 lmol kg 21 , respectively, and DIC levels varied with flow rates during high and low discharge periods. The cycling of DIC exhibited conservative behavior in both the Changjiang and Huanghe estuaries, suggesting DIC levels were controlled mainly by physical mixing processes.D 14 C-DIC values indicate that the Changjiang and Huanghe transport aged DIC (1060-1380 yr old). Both D 14 C-DIC and d 13 C-DIC values also showed conservative mixing in the two estuaries. Using a dual carbon isotopic model, we calculated that atmospheric CO 2 consumed mainly by silicate weathering was a major source, contributing 65.2 6 9.0% and 73.4 6 3.0% of DIC in the Changjiang and Huanghe, and 96.9-97.7% (by air-sea exchange) of DIC in the coastal waters of the East China Sea (ECS) and Bohai Sea, respectively. Our results indicate that carbonate dissolution was an important (12.3-17.4%) but not major process controlling the high DIC levels in both rivers, as suggested previously. Compared with the large Amazon River, respiration of riverine organic matter (OM) played a less important role, contributing only 15.4-17.2% of DIC in the two Asian rivers. Flux calculations indicate that the Changjiang and Huanghe discharged 1.46 3 10 13 g and 6.28 3 10 11 g DIC into the ECS and Bohai Sea in 2014, which were 9 and 17 times higher than the DOC fluxes in the two rivers. These large fluxes of riverine DIC, especially of aged DIC, could have significant impacts on primary production and carbon cycling in the ECS and Bohai Sea.

We present the carbon isotope ( 14 C and 13 C), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration measurements in the South China Sea (SCS) to reveal the different sources and cycling time scales of the two major carbon pools in the SCS. The DIC concentrations ranged from 1,776 to 2,328 μmol kg −1 , and they were lower at the surface and increased with depth. Conversely, the DOC concentrations ranged from 38 to 95 μM, and they were higher on the surface and decreased rapidly in the upper 500-m water depth. The DIC Δ 14 C and DOC Δ 14 C values varied from −227‰ to 68‰ and −557‰ to −258‰, respectively, and both decreased with depth until 1,500 m and then remained relatively constant. DOC Δ 14 C values were −330‰ lower than DIC Δ 14 C, indicating that DOC has cycled for much longer than DIC in the SCS. The lower Δ 14 C-DIC and Δ 14 C-DOC values at depths shallower than 700 m were mainly influenced by intensified vertical mixing, which upwelled the deep water with low Δ 14 C-DIC and Δ 14 C-DOC values for thorough mixture with the upper layer water. Conversely, the small difference in the Δ 14 C signature in deep water (>1,500 m) between the SCS and the North Pacific confirmed the rapid water exchange through the Luzon Strait and rapid water mixing in the SCS basin, which plays an important role in controlling carbon cycling in the deep SCS.Plain Language Summary Dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is the largest carbon pool in the ocean and is closely linked to dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which is the largest exchangeable organic carbon pool in the ocean. Both DIC and DOC play important roles in the global carbon cycle, but their sources, distribution, and cycling time are different and controlled by different processes in the ocean. Here we report radiocarbon and stable carbon isotope measurements of DIC and DOC collected in the South China Sea (SCS) to reveal the sources and cycling time scales of the two major carbon pools in the SCS. The Δ 14 C values and 14 C ages indicate that DOC has cycled for much longer than DIC in the SCS. The rapid water exchange and mixing between the SCS and the Kuroshio Current in the Northwestern Pacific play important roles in controlling the distributions and cycling of DIC and DOC in the SCS.

The oceans represent a significant sink for atmospheric CO 2 , acting as the largest pool of exchangeable carbon in the world. Globally, approximately 39,000 GtC of total carbon is stored in the ocean, up to 95% of which is in the form of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC; Key et al., 2004;Schuur et al., 2016). Each year, approximately 30%-40% of anthropogenically produced CO 2 is absorbed by the ocean through air-sea exchange and dissolved as DIC in the ocean (Gruber et al., 2009;Lemke et al., 2007). The variability in DIC in the ocean is controlled not only by air-sea exchange (Tsunogai, 2000;Winn et al., 1998) but also by changes in ocean circulation and biological activities (Gruber, 2011;Tsurushima et al., 2002;Wakita et al., 2010). The distribution and cycling of DIC in the ocean therefore play crucial roles in the global carbon cycle and in climate change (Key et al., 2004;Valsala et al., 2012;Yasunaka et al., 2014).Radiocarbon ( 14 C) natural abundances have been used in studies of marine carbon cycling to determine the sources, residence times, transformations, and interactions of both organic and inorganic carbon reservoirs (Bau-