MOSAIC (Modern Ocean Sediment Archive and Inventory of Carbon): a (radio)carbon-centric database for seafloor surficial sediments

Abstract

Abstract. Mapping the biogeochemical characteristics of surficial ocean sediments is crucial for advancing our understanding of global element cycling, as well as for assessment of the potential footprint of environmental change. Despite their importance as long-term repositories for biogenic materials produced in the ocean and delivered from the continents, biogeochemical signatures in ocean sediments remain poorly delineated. Here, we introduce MOSAIC (Modern Ocean Sediment Archive and Inventory of Carbon; https://doi.org/10.5168/mosaic019.1, http://mosaic.ethz.ch/, last access: 1 March 2021; Van der Voort et al., 2019), a (radio)carbon-centric database that seeks to address this information void. The goal of this nascent database is to provide a platform for development of regional-to-global-scale perspectives on the source, abundance and composition of organic matter in marine surface sediments and to explore links between spatial variability in these characteristics and biological and depositional processes. The database has a continental margin-centric focus given both the importance and complexity of continental margins as sites of organic matter burial. It places emphasis on radiocarbon as an underutilized yet powerful tracer and chronometer of carbon cycle processes, with a view to complementing radiocarbon databases for other Earth system compartments. The database infrastructure and interactive web application are openly accessible and designed to facilitate further expansion of the database. Examples are presented to illustrate large-scale variabilities in bulk carbon properties that emerge from the present data compilation.

Radiocarbon dating

“…The interdisciplinary applications of radiocarbon dating have also resulted in a number of thematic databases representing the archaeology of specific regions or time periods [341][342][343] , dates of volcanic eruptions 344 and ages of soils 345 , bones 346 , or seafloor sediments 347 . There are also databases that include radiocarbon dates as a part of extensive data sets in the compilation of climatic records from around the globe 348 (also see Supplementary Table 3).…”

MOdern River archivEs of Particulate Organic Carbon: MOREPOC

“…MOREPOC will benefit the scientific community carrying out research on riverine POC sources, transport, and fate as well as Earth system modelers. Combined with ocean sediment databases, such as CASCADE (Circum-Arctic Sediment Carbon DatabasE, Martens et al, 2021) or MOSAIC (Modern Ocean Sediment Archive and Inventory of Carbon, Van der Voort et al, 2021), MOREPOC will enable a better understanding of the fate of POC from source to sink. Existing environmental raster global datasets for climate, geomorphology, lithology, tectonics, hydrology, and land use, also offer promising prospects for the use of MOREPOC for identifying the controls on POC fluxes and composition, in particular using advanced statistical analysis or machine learning techniques.…”

Making the case for an International Decade of Radiocarbon

“…Furthermore, new databases have been initiated and are being actively updated to compile previously disparate observations (e.g. [28][29][30]).…”