The role of terrestrially derived organic carbon in the coastal ocean: A changing paradigm and the priming effect

One of the major conundrums in oceanography for the past 20 y has been that, although the total flux of dissolved organic carbon (OC; DOC) discharged annually to the global ocean can account for the turnover time of all oceanic DOC (ca. 4,000-6,000 y), chemical biomarker and stable isotopic data indicate that there is very little terrestrially derived OC (TerrOC) in the global ocean. Similarly, it has been estimated that only 30% of the TerrOC buried in marine sediments is of terrestrial origin in muddy deltaic regions with high sedimentation rates. If vascular plant material--assumed to be highly resistant to decay--makes up much of the DOC and particulate OC of riverine OC (along with soil OC), why do we not…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• OO
  Office of Naval Research