Pelagic calcium carbonate production and shallow dissolution in the North Pacific Ocean
Abstract
Planktonic calcifying organisms play a key role in regulating ocean carbonate chemistry and atmospheric CO2. Surprisingly, references to the absolute and relative contribution of these organisms to calcium carbonate production are lacking. Here we report quantification of pelagic calcium carbonate production in the North Pacific, providing new insights on the contribution of the three main planktonic calcifying groups. Our results show that coccolithophores dominate the living calcium carbonate (CaCO3) standing stock, with coccolithophore calcite comprising ~90% of total CaCO3 production, and pteropods and foraminifera playing a secondary role. We show that pelagic CaCO3 production is higher than the sinking flux of CaCO3 at 150 and 200 m at ocean stations ALOHA and PAPA, implying that a large portion of pelagic calcium carbonate is remineralised within the photic zone; this extensive shallow dissolution explains the apparent discrepancy between previous estimates of CaCO3 production derived from satellite observations/biogeochemical modeling versus estimates from shallow sediment traps. We suggest future changes in the CaCO3 cycle and its impact on atmospheric CO2 will largely depend on how the poorly-understood processes that determine whether CaCO3 is remineralised in the photic zone or exported to depth respond to anthropogenic warming and acidification.
Citation
Ziveri , P , Gray , W R , Anglada-Ortiz , G , Manno , C , Grelaud , M , Incarbona , A , Rae , J W B , Subhas , A V , Pallacks , S , White , A , Adkins , J F & Berelson , W 2023 , ' Pelagic calcium carbonate production and shallow dissolution in the North Pacific Ocean ' , Nature Communications , vol. 14 , no. 1 , 805 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36177-w
Publication
Nature Communications
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2041-1723Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Author(s) 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Description
Funding: Funding was provided by NSF Grants OCE1220600 and OCE1220302 awarded to JA and WB, respectively, MINECO PID2020-113526RB-I00, the Generalitat de Catalunya MERS (#2017 SGR-1588) awarded to PZ and NERC grant NE/N011716/1 awarded to JR.Collections
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