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Connections between climate, food limitation, and carbon cycling in abyssal sediment communities

Connections between climate, food limitation, and carbon cycling in abyssal sediment communities
Connections between climate, food limitation, and carbon cycling in abyssal sediment communities
Diverse faunal groups inhabit deep-sea sediments over much of Earth's surface, but our understanding of how interannual-scale climate variation alters sediment community components and biogeochemical processes remains limited. The vast majority of deep-sea communities depend on a particulate organic carbon food supply that sinks from photosynthetically active surface waters. Variations in food supply depend, in part, on surface climate conditions. Proposed ocean iron fertilization efforts are also intended to alter surface production and carbon export from surface waters. Understanding the ecology of the abyssal sediment community and constituent metazoan macrofauna is important because they influence carbon and nutrient cycle processes at the seafloor through remineralization, bioturbation, and burial of the sunken material. Results from a 10-year study in the abyssal NE Pacific found that climate-driven variations in food availability were linked to total metazoan macrofauna abundance, phyla composition, rank-abundance distributions, and remineralization over seasonal and interannual scales. The long-term analysis suggests that broad biogeographic patterns in deep-sea macrofauna community structure can change over contemporary timescales with changes in surface ocean conditions and provides significant evidence that sediment community parameters can be estimated from atmospheric and upper-ocean conditions. These apparent links between climate, the upper ocean, and deep-sea biogeochemistry need to be considered in determining the long-term carbon storage capacity of the ocean.
biogeochemistry, community structure, deep sea, ecology, macrofauna
0027-8424
17006-17011
Ruhl, Henry A.
177608ef-7793-4911-86cf-cd9960ff22b6
Ellena, Jacob A.
d85379a7-f78a-4647-8db1-a40961ccbaea
Smith, Kenneth L.
c282f721-59cf-4caa-a344-f4a26f6b534c
Ruhl, Henry A.
177608ef-7793-4911-86cf-cd9960ff22b6
Ellena, Jacob A.
d85379a7-f78a-4647-8db1-a40961ccbaea
Smith, Kenneth L.
c282f721-59cf-4caa-a344-f4a26f6b534c

Ruhl, Henry A., Ellena, Jacob A. and Smith, Kenneth L. (2008) Connections between climate, food limitation, and carbon cycling in abyssal sediment communities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105 (44), 17006-17011. (doi:10.1073/pnas.0803898105).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Diverse faunal groups inhabit deep-sea sediments over much of Earth's surface, but our understanding of how interannual-scale climate variation alters sediment community components and biogeochemical processes remains limited. The vast majority of deep-sea communities depend on a particulate organic carbon food supply that sinks from photosynthetically active surface waters. Variations in food supply depend, in part, on surface climate conditions. Proposed ocean iron fertilization efforts are also intended to alter surface production and carbon export from surface waters. Understanding the ecology of the abyssal sediment community and constituent metazoan macrofauna is important because they influence carbon and nutrient cycle processes at the seafloor through remineralization, bioturbation, and burial of the sunken material. Results from a 10-year study in the abyssal NE Pacific found that climate-driven variations in food availability were linked to total metazoan macrofauna abundance, phyla composition, rank-abundance distributions, and remineralization over seasonal and interannual scales. The long-term analysis suggests that broad biogeographic patterns in deep-sea macrofauna community structure can change over contemporary timescales with changes in surface ocean conditions and provides significant evidence that sediment community parameters can be estimated from atmospheric and upper-ocean conditions. These apparent links between climate, the upper ocean, and deep-sea biogeochemistry need to be considered in determining the long-term carbon storage capacity of the ocean.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 30 October 2008
Published date: 4 November 2008
Keywords: biogeochemistry, community structure, deep sea, ecology, macrofauna
Organisations: Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre,Southampton

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 65032
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/65032
ISSN: 0027-8424
PURE UUID: b5801be4-7093-4de8-9e16-72543b840abc

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 27 Jan 2009
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 12:05

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Contributors

Author: Henry A. Ruhl
Author: Jacob A. Ellena
Author: Kenneth L. Smith

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