If the results were correct, DOC was far from “boring,” instead being central to the ocean’s carbon cycle. The results indicated significant variability in DOC from the surface ocean through to the greatest depths. This stunning result hinged on a new analytical technique for measuring marine DOC by high-temperature catalytic oxidation. In this technique, DOC in seawater is oxidized at high temperature and the CO 2 generated is measured. Then came a surprise: Sugimura and Suzuki reported 2–5 times greater surface ocean DOC concentrations than others had previously observed. Given that the pool of carbon was not considered particularly dynamic compared with nutrients and oxygen, it was considered by many to be boring and, as a result, was little studied.Ī surprise: Sugimura and Suzuki reported 2–5 times greater surface ocean DOC concentrations than others had previously observed. In the mid-1980s, ocean scientists believed that dissolved organic carbon (DOC) remained mostly biologically inactive and did not vary much throughout the ocean depths. A Surprise Result Initiates a Controversy Efforts to test the then new, incredible, and, finally, erroneous data led to a deeper understanding of how the ocean sequesters carbon. The road to this point was not always smooth just a few decades ago, a shocking study threw scientists’ entire understanding of dissolved organic carbon in the ocean into doubt. Just a few decades ago, a shocking study threw scientists’ entire understanding of dissolved organic carbon in the ocean into doubt.Ĭould today’s oceans pull off another such climate rescue? Certainly not on the timeline we’d like, but a quarter century of research has scientists poised to make major progress toward understanding how the system works. Evidence suggests that sequestering large amounts of dissolved organic carbon in the deep ocean may have helped bring the planet back from past warming episodes similar to the one humans are causing now.
Given the dynamic nature of this pool, it was likely a major player in global climate over geologic time scales.
Earth’s deep oceans contain almost as much carbon in the form of dissolved organic molecules as the planet’s atmosphere contains in the form of carbon dioxide (CO 2).
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