Forms of carbon[edit]

DOM and POM

Connections between the different compartments of the living (bacteria/viruses and phyto−/zooplankton) and
the nonliving (DOM/POM and inorganic matter) environment  [13]

Dissolved and particulate carbon

Phytoplankton supports all life in the ocean as it converts inorganic compounds into organic
constituents. This autotrophically produced biomass presents the foundation of the marine food web.
[13]
 In the diagram immediately below, the arrows indicate the various production (arrowhead pointing
toward DOM pool) and removal processes of DOM (arrowhead pointing away), while the dashed
arrows represent dominant biological processes involved in the transfer of DOM. Due to these
processes, the fraction of labile DOM decreases rapidly with depth, whereas the refractory character
of the DOM pool considerably increases during its export to the deep ocean. DOM, dissolved
organic matter.[13][14]

The fate of DOM in the ocean

 Particulate inorganic carbon budget for Hudson Bay
Black arrows represent DIC produced by PIC dissolution. Grey lines represent terrestrial PIC.
[15]
                      Units are Tg C y −1

Calcium carbonate[edit]

The White Cliffs of Dover are made almost entirely

of the plates of buried coccolithophores ( see below ↓ )

Particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) usually takes the form of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), and plays a
key part in the ocean carbon cycle.[16] This biologically fixed carbon is used as a protective coating for
many planktonic species (coccolithophores, foraminifera) as well as larger marine organisms
(mollusk shells). Calcium carbonate is also excreted at high rates during osmoregulation by fish, and
can form in whiting events.[17] While this form of carbon is not directly taken from the atmospheric
budget, it is formed from dissolved forms of carbonate which are in equilibrium with CO 2 and then
responsible for removing this carbon via sequestration. [18]
CO2 + H2O → H2CO3 → H+ + HCO3−
Ca2+ + 2HCO3− → CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O
While this process does manage to fix a large amount of carbon, two units of alkalinity are
sequestered for every unit of sequestered carbon. [2][19] The formation and sinking of CaCO3 therefore
drives a surface to deep alkalinity gradient which serves to raise the pH of surface waters, shifting
the speciation of dissolved carbon to raise the partial pressure of dissolved CO2 in surface waters,
which actually raises atmospheric levels. In addition, the burial of CaCO 3 in sediments serves to
lower overall oceanic alkalinity, tending to raise pH and thereby atmospheric CO2 levels if not
counterbalanced by the new input of alkalinity from weathering. [1] The portion of carbon that is
permanently buried at the sea floor becomes part of the geologic record. Calcium carbonate often
forms remarkable deposits that can then be raised onto land through tectonic motion as in the case
with the White Cliffs of Dover in Southern England. These cliffs are made almost entirely of the
plates of buried coccolithophores.[20]

Oceanic carbon cycle[edit]

Main article: Oceanic carbon cycle

Oceanic Carbon Cycle — IPCC

Three main processes (or pumps) that make up the marine carbon cycle bring atmospheric carbon
dioxide (CO2) into the ocean interior and distribute it through the oceans. These three pumps are: (1)
the solubility pump, (2) the carbonate pump, and (3) the biological pump. The total active pool of
carbon at the Earth's surface for durations of less than 10,000 years is roughly 40,000 gigatons C
(Gt C, a gigaton is one billion tons, or the weight of approximately 6 million blue whales), and about
95% (~38,000 Gt C) is stored in the ocean, mostly as dissolved inorganic carbon.[21][22] The speciation
of dissolved inorganic carbon in the marine carbon cycle is a primary controller of acid-base
chemistry in the oceans.

Solubility pump[edit]
Main article: Solubility pump
 Solubility pump: Air-sea exchange of CO2

The biological pump is accompanied by a physico-chemical counterpart known as the solubility

pump. This pump transports significant amounts of carbon in the form of dissolved inorganic
carbon (DIC) from the ocean's surface to its interior. It involves physical and chemical processes
only, and does not involve biological processes.[23]
The solubility pump is driven by the coincidence of two processes in the ocean:

 The solubility of carbon dioxide is a strong inverse function of seawater temperature (i.e.

solubility is greater in cooler water)
 The thermohaline circulation is driven by the formation of deep water at high latitudes
where seawater is usually cooler and denser
Since deep water (that is, seawater in the ocean's interior) is formed under the same surface
conditions that promote carbon dioxide solubility, it contains a higher concentration of dissolved
inorganic carbon than might be expected from average surface concentrations. Consequently, these
two processes act together to pump carbon from the atmosphere into the ocean's interior. One
consequence of this is that when deep water upwells in warmer, equatorial latitudes, it strongly
outgasses carbon dioxide to the atmosphere because of the reduced solubility of the gas. [24]

Carbonate pump[edit]
The carbonate pump is sometimes referred to as the “hard tissue” component of the biological
pump.[25] Some surface marine organisms, like coccolithophores, produce hard structures out of
calcium carbonate, a form of particulate inorganic carbon, by fixing bicarbonate. [26] This fixation of
DIC is an important part of the oceanic carbon cycle.
Ca2+ + 2 HCO3− → CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O
While the biological carbon pump fixes inorganic carbon (CO2) into particulate organic carbon in the
form of sugar (C6H12O6), the carbonate pump fixes inorganic bicarbonate and causes a net release of
CO2.[26] In this way, the carbonate pump could be termed the carbonate counter pump. It works
counter to the biological pump by counteracting the CO2 flux into the biological pump.[27]

Continental shelf pump[edit]

Main article: Continental shelf pump
The continental shelf pump is proposed as operating in the shallow waters of the continental
shelves as a mechanism transporting carbon (dissolved or particulate) from the continental waters to
the interior of the adjacent deep ocean.[28] As originally formulated, the pump is thought to occur
where the solubility pump interacts with cooler, and therefore denser water from the shelf floor which
feeds down the continental slope into the neighbouring deep ocean. [28] The shallowness of the
continental shelf restricts the convection of cooling water, so the cooling can be greater for
continental shelf waters than for neighbouring open ocean waters. These cooler waters promote
the solubility pump and lead to an increased storage of dissolved inorganic carbon. This extra
carbon storage is further augmented by the increased biological production characteristic of shelves.
[29]
 The dense, carbon-rich shelf waters then sink to the shelf floor and enter the sub-surface layer of
the open ocean via isopycnal mixing.[28] As the sea level rises in response to global warming, the
surface area of the shelf seas will grow and in consequence the strength of the shelf sea pump
should increase.[30]