Abstract. Carbon cycling in Peruvian margin sediments (11 and 12° S) was examined at 16 stations, from 74 m water depth on the middle shelf down to 1024 m, using a combination of in situ flux measurements, sedimentary geochemistry and modelling. Bottom water oxygen was below detection limit down to ca. 400 m and increased to 53 μM at the deepest station. Sediment accumulation rates decreased sharply seaward of the middle shelf and subsequently increased at the deep stations. The organic carbon burial efficiency (CBE) was unusually low on the middle shelf (<20%) when compared to an existing global database, for reasons which may be linked to episodic ventilation of the bottom waters by oceanographic anomalies. Deposition of reworked, degraded material originating from sites higher up on the slope is proposed to explain unusually high sedimentation rates and CBE (>60%) at the deep oxygenated sites. In line with other studies, CBE was elevated under oxygen-deficient waters in the mid-water oxygen minimum zone. Organic carbon rain rates calculated from the benthic fluxes alluded to efficient mineralisation of organic matter in the water column compared to other oxygen-deficient environments. The observations at the Peruvian margin suggest that a lack of oxygen does not greatly affect the degradation of organic matter in the water column but promotes the preservation of organic matter in sediments.

No abstract

No abstract

An empirical function is derived for predicting the rate-depth profile of particulate organic carbon (POC) degradation in surface marine sediments including the bioturbated layer. The rate takes the form of a power law analogous to the Middelburg function. The functional parameters were optimized by simulating measured benthic O 2 and NO 3 À fluxes at 185 stations worldwide using a diagenetic model. The novelty of this work rests with the finding that the vertically resolved POC degradation rate in the bioturbated zone can be determined using a simple function where the POC rain rate is the governing variable. Although imperfect, the model is able to fit 71% of paired O 2 and NO 3 À fluxes to within 50% of measured values. It further provides realistic geochemical concentration-depth profiles, NO 3 À penetration depths, and apparent first-order POC mineralization rate constants. The model performs less well on the continental shelf due to the high sediment heterogeneity there. When applied to globally resolved maps of rain rate, the model predicts a global denitrification rate of 182 ± 88 Tg yr À1 of N and a POC burial rate of 107 ± 52 Tg yr À1 of C with a mean carbon burial efficiency of 6.1%. These results are in very good agreement with published values. Our proposed function is conceptually simple, requires less parameterization than multi-G-type models, and is suitable for nonsteady state applications. It provides a basis for more accurately simulating benthic nutrient fluxes and carbonate dissolution rates in Earth system models.

No abstract