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Temporal Variability of Dissolved Organic Radiocarbon in the Deep North Pacific Ocean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2018

Ellen R M Druffel*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3100USA
Sheila Griffin
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3100USA
Ning Wang
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3100USA State Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
Brett D Walker
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3100USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

We report marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) ∆14C from seawater collected from the North central Pacific Ocean (NCP) in 2015. These measurements show DOC ∆14C values averaged –235±5‰ (n=3) in the mixed layer (24–81 m) and –544±5‰ (n=5) in the deep water (1500–5139 m). A comparison of these data with two previously published DOC ∆14C profiles from the NCP in 1985 and 1987 reveals that deep DOC ∆14C values have decreased. We discuss several possible mechanisms that could cause such a shift in DOC ∆14C values, including spatial inhomogeneity and temporal variability due to changes in the dissolution and ∆14C value of surface derived particles in the deep sea. We find that forthcoming profiles of DOC ∆14C results from the NCP will determine the primary mechanisms controlling deep DOC ∆14C distributions, and changes over the past three decades.

Type
Marine & Other Methods
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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