Black Carbon in Marine Dissolved Organic Carbon: Abundance and Radiocarbon Measurements in the Global Ocean

Abstract:

Compound specific radiocarbon analysis is a powerful tool for understanding the cycling of individual components, such as black carbon (BC) produced from biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion, within bulk pools, like the marine dissolved organic carbon pool. Here, we use a solid phase extraction method and a wide range of solvent polarities to concentrate dissolved organic carbon from seawater. Then we isolate BC in sufficient quantities for radiocarbon analysis. We report the radiocarbon age of BC, concentrations and its relative structure, from coastal and open ocean surface samples. We will discuss our progress towards measuring these quantities in dissolved organic carbon collected from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans to understand the fate, transformation and cycling of BC in the world ocean. These measurements are paired with bulk DOC Δ¹⁴C profiles, providing insight into the role of BC as a missing sink in the ultra-refractory DOC pool.