Abstract
Measured rates of sediment oxygen consumption are extrapolated throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins from 61° N to 61° S latitude. Because benthic respiration must be supported predominantly by the rain of organic matter from surface waters, the pattern of oxygen consumption in the surface sediments reveals the distribution of particle fluxes in the deep ocean. Benthic oxygen consumption in the Atlantic and Pacific basins appears to account for the remineralization of 1 to 2& of global oceanic primary production and 4 to 10% of global new production. These values are minimum estimates of the role of the sea floor in global cycles because the contributions from the Arctic, Antarctic and Indian Oceans are not included. Comparison of total respiration estimated for the deep Atlantic from AOU and 14C relationships and from benthic respiration indicates that sea floor processes account for 33 to 40% of the organic matter remineralization occurring below 1000 m. Introduction
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Jahnke, R.A., Jackson, G.A. (1992). The Spatial Distribution of Sea Floor Oxygen Consumption in The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In: Rowe, G.T., Pariente, V. (eds) Deep-Sea Food Chains and the Global Carbon Cycle. NATO ASI Series, vol 360. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2452-2_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2452-2_18
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