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Coppola AI, Druffel ERM, Broek TA, Haghipour N, Eglinton TI, McCarthy M, Walker BD. Variable aging and storage of dissolved black carbon in the ocean. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2305030121. [PMID: 38517975 PMCID: PMC10990100 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2305030121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 03/24/2024] Open
Abstract
During wildfires and fossil fuel combustion, biomass is converted to black carbon (BC) via incomplete combustion. BC enters the ocean by rivers and atmospheric deposition contributing to the marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool. The fate of BC is considered to reside in the marine DOC pool, where the oldest BC 14C ages have been measured (>20,000 14C y), implying long-term storage. DOC is the largest exchangeable pool of organic carbon in the oceans, yet most DOC (>80%) remains molecularly uncharacterized. Here, we report 14C measurements on size-fractionated dissolved BC (DBC) obtained using benzene polycarboxylic acids as molecular tracers to constrain the sources and cycling of DBC and its contributions to refractory DOC (RDOC) in a site in the North Pacific Ocean. Our results reveal that the cycling of DBC is more dynamic and heterogeneous than previously believed though it does not comprise a single, uniformly "old" 14C age. Instead, both semilabile and refractory DBC components are distributed among size fractions of DOC. We report that DBC cycles within DOC as a component of RDOC, exhibiting turnover in the ocean on millennia timescales. DBC within the low-molecular-weight DOC pool is large, environmentally persistent and constitutes the size fraction that is responsible for long-term DBC storage. We speculate that sea surface processes, including bacterial remineralization (via the coupling of photooxidation of surface DBC and bacterial co-metabolism), sorption onto sinking particles and surface photochemical oxidation, modify DBC composition and turnover, ultimately controlling the fate of DBC and RDOC in the ocean.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alysha I. Coppola
- Department of Earth Sciences, Geological Institute, ETH Zürich, Zürich8092, Switzerland
| | - Ellen R. M. Druffel
- Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
| | - Taylor A. Broek
- Geology and Geophysics Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA02543
| | - Negar Haghipour
- Department of Earth Sciences, Geological Institute, ETH Zürich, Zürich8092, Switzerland
- Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zürich, Zürich8093, Switzerland
| | - Timothy I. Eglinton
- Department of Earth Sciences, Geological Institute, ETH Zürich, Zürich8092, Switzerland
| | - Matthew McCarthy
- Department of Ocean Science, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA95064
| | - Brett D. Walker
- Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA92697
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ONK1N 6N5, Canada
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Wagner S, Coppola AI, Stubbins A, Dittmar T, Niggemann J, Drake TW, Seidel M, Spencer RGM, Bao H. Questions remain about the biolability of dissolved black carbon along the combustion continuum. Nat Commun 2021; 12:4281. [PMID: 34257297 PMCID: PMC8277834 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24477-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2020] [Accepted: 06/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Sasha Wagner
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Alysha I Coppola
- Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Aron Stubbins
- Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Thorsten Dittmar
- Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
- Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB) at the University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Jutta Niggemann
- Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Travis W Drake
- Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Michael Seidel
- Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Robert G M Spencer
- Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
| | - Hongyan Bao
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
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Jones MW, Coppola AI, Santín C, Dittmar T, Jaffé R, Doerr SH, Quine TA. Fires prime terrestrial organic carbon for riverine export to the global oceans. Nat Commun 2020; 11:2791. [PMID: 32494057 PMCID: PMC7270114 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16576-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/07/2020] [Accepted: 05/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Black carbon (BC) is a recalcitrant form of organic carbon (OC) produced by landscape fires. BC is an important component of the global carbon cycle because, compared to unburned biogenic OC, it is selectively conserved in terrestrial and oceanic pools. Here we show that the dissolved BC (DBC) content of dissolved OC (DOC) is twice greater in major (sub)tropical and high-latitude rivers than in major temperate rivers, with further significant differences between biomes. We estimate that rivers export 18 ± 4 Tg DBC year-1 globally and that, including particulate BC fluxes, total riverine export amounts to 43 ± 15 Tg BC year-1 (12 ± 5% of the OC flux). While rivers export ~1% of the OC sequestered by terrestrial vegetation, our estimates suggest that 34 ± 26% of the BC produced by landscape fires has an oceanic fate. Biogeochemical models require modification to account for the unique dynamics of BC and to predict the response of recalcitrant OC export to changing environmental conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew W Jones
- Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
| | - Alysha I Coppola
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland.,Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Cristina Santín
- Geography Department, College of Science, Swansea University, Swansea, UK.,Biosciences Department, College of Science, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
| | - Thorsten Dittmar
- Research Group for Marine Geochemistry (ICBM-MPI Bridging Group), Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.,Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB), University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Rudolf Jaffé
- Southeast Environmental Research Center and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
| | - Stefan H Doerr
- Geography Department, College of Science, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
| | - Timothy A Quine
- Geography Department, College of Life and Environmental Science, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
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4
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Coppola AI, Seidel M, Ward ND, Viviroli D, Nascimento GS, Haghipour N, Revels BN, Abiven S, Jones MW, Richey JE, Eglinton TI, Dittmar T, Schmidt MWI. Marked isotopic variability within and between the Amazon River and marine dissolved black carbon pools. Nat Commun 2019; 10:4018. [PMID: 31488815 PMCID: PMC6728373 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-11543-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2019] [Accepted: 07/11/2019] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Riverine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) contains charcoal byproducts, termed black carbon (BC). To determine the significance of BC as a sink of atmospheric CO2 and reconcile budgets, the sources and fate of this large, slow-cycling and elusive carbon pool must be constrained. The Amazon River is a significant part of global BC cycling because it exports an order of magnitude more DOC, and thus dissolved BC (DBC), than any other river. We report spatially resolved DBC quantity and radiocarbon (Δ14C) measurements, paired with molecular-level characterization of dissolved organic matter from the Amazon River and tributaries during low discharge. The proportion of BC-like polycyclic aromatic structures decreases downstream, but marked spatial variability in abundance and Δ14C values of DBC molecular markers imply dynamic sources and cycling in a manner that is incongruent with bulk DOC. We estimate a flux from the Amazon River of 1.9–2.7 Tg DBC yr−1 that is composed of predominately young DBC, suggesting that loss processes of modern DBC are important. Black carbon produced by the burning of biomass and fuels is the most stable carbon compound in nature, yet its path from land to the deep ocean where it persists for thousands of years remains mysterious. Here Coppola and colleagues characterize the black carbon exported by the Amazon River, the largest river in the world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alysha I Coppola
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Michael Seidel
- Research Group for Marine Geochemistry, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, D-26129, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Nicholas D Ward
- Marine Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 1529 West Sequim Bay Road, Sequim, WA, 98382, USA.,School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Box 355351, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - Daniel Viviroli
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Gabriela S Nascimento
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland.,Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Negar Haghipour
- Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland.,Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zürich, Otto-Stern-Weg 5, 8093, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Brandi N Revels
- Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Samuel Abiven
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Matthew W Jones
- Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Jeffrey E Richey
- School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Box 355351, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA
| | - Timothy I Eglinton
- Geological Institute, Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Thorsten Dittmar
- Research Group for Marine Geochemistry, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg, D-26129, Oldenburg, Germany.,Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB), Ammerländer Heerstraße 231, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany
| | - Michael W I Schmidt
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland
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Hanke UM, Reddy CM, Braun ALL, Coppola AI, Haghipour N, McIntyre CP, Wacker L, Xu L, McNichol AP, Abiven S, Schmidt MWI, Eglinton TI. What on Earth Have We Been Burning? Deciphering Sedimentary Records of Pyrogenic Carbon. Environ Sci Technol 2017; 51:12972-12980. [PMID: 28994589 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b03243] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Humans have interacted with fire for thousands of years, yet the utilization of fossil fuels marked the beginning of a new era. Ubiquitous in the environment, pyrogenic carbon (PyC) arises from incomplete combustion of biomass and fossil fuels, forming a continuum of condensed aromatic structures. Here, we develop and evaluate 14C records for two complementary PyC molecular markers, benzene polycarboxylic acids (BPCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), preserved in aquatic sediments from a suburban and a remote catchment in the United States (U.S.) from the mid-1700s to 1998. Results show that the majority of PyC stems from local sources and is transferred to aquatic sedimentary archives on subdecadal to millennial time scales. Whereas a small portion stems from near-contemporaneous production and sedimentation, the majority of PyC (∼90%) experiences delayed transmission due to "preaging" on millennial time scales in catchment soils prior to its ultimate deposition. BPCAs (soot) and PAHs (precursors of soot) trace fossil fuel-derived PyC. Both markers parallel historical records of the consumption of fossil fuels in the U.S., yet never account for more than 19% total PyC. This study demonstrates that isotopic characterization of multiple tracers is necessary to constrain histories and inventories of PyC and that sequestration of PyC can markedly lag its production.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulrich M Hanke
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich , Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Christopher M Reddy
- Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution , 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543-1050, United States
| | - Ana L L Braun
- Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution , 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543-1050, United States
| | - Alysha I Coppola
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich , Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Negar Haghipour
- Geological Institute, ETH Zürich , Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Cameron P McIntyre
- Geological Institute, ETH Zürich , Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
- Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zürich , Otto-Stern-Weg 5, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
- Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre , East Kilbride G75 0QF, United Kingdom
| | - Lukas Wacker
- Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zürich , Otto-Stern-Weg 5, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Li Xu
- Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution , 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543-1050, United States
| | - Ann P McNichol
- Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution , 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543-1050, United States
| | - Samuel Abiven
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich , Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Michael W I Schmidt
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich , Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Timothy I Eglinton
- Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution , 266 Woods Hole Road, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543-1050, United States
- Geological Institute, ETH Zürich , Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
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