Model estimates of metazoans' contributions to the biological carbon pump
Abstract
The daily vertical migrations of fish and other metazoans actively transport organic carbon from the ocean surface to depth, contributing to the biological carbon pump. We use an oxygen-constrained, game-theoretic food-web model to simulate diel vertical migrations and estimate near-global (global ocean minus coastal areas and high latitudes) carbon fluxes and sequestration by fish and zooplankton due to respiration, fecal pellets, and deadfalls. Our model provides estimates of the carbon export and sequestration potential for a range of pelagic functional groups, despite uncertain biomass estimates of some functional groups. While the export production of metazoans and fish is modest (∼20 % of global total), we estimate that their contribution to carbon sequestered by the biological pump (∼800 PgC) is conservatively more than 50 % of the estimated global total (∼1300 PgC) and that they have a significantly longer sequestration timescale (∼250 years) than previously reported for other components of the biological pump. Fish and multicellular zooplankton contribute about equally to this sequestered carbon pool. This essential ecosystem service could be at risk from both unregulated fishing on the high seas and ocean deoxygenation due to climate change.
Citation
Pinti , J , Devries , T , Norin , T , Serra-Pompei , C , Proud , R , Siegel , D A , Kiørboe , T , Petrik , C M , Andersen , K H , Brierley , A S & Visser , A W 2023 , ' Model estimates of metazoans' contributions to the biological carbon pump ' , Biogeosciences , vol. 20 , no. 5 , pp. 997-1009 . https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-997-2023
Publication
Biogeosciences
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1726-4170Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Description
Funding: This work was supported by the Centre for Ocean Life, a VKR Centre of Excellence funded by the Villum Foundation, and by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant no. 5479). André W. Visser was funded in part through the Horizon 2020 project ECOTIP (grant no. 869383). Andrew S. Brierley and Roland Proud were funded in part through the EU BG3 project “SUMMER” and BG8 project “Mission Atlantic”. Collated echo-sounder data obtained from the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) included observations made during the Atlantic Meridional Transect. The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) is funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council through its National Capability Long-term Single Centre Science Programme, Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (grant number NE/R015953/1).Collections
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