The biological pump transports organic matter, created by phytoplankton productivity in the well-lit surface ocean, to the ocean's dark interior, where it is consumed by animals and heterotrophic microbes and remineralized back to inorganic forms. This downward transport of organic matter sequesters carbon dioxide from exchange with the atmosphere on timescales of months to millennia, depending on where in the water column the respiration occurs. There are three primary export pathways that link the upper ocean to the interior: the gravitational, migrant, and mixing pumps. These pathways are regulated by vastly different mechanisms, making it challenging to quantify the impacts of the biological pump on the global carbon cycle. In this review, we assess progress toward creating a global accounting of carbon export and sequestration via the biological pump and suggest a path toward achieving this goal.

中文翻译：

---

量化海洋生物泵及其对全球尺度的碳循环影响


生物泵将光照充足的海洋中浮游植物生产力产生的有机物输送到海洋黑暗的内部，在那里被动物和异养微生物食用，并再矿化回无机形式。有机物的这种向下运输在几个月到几千年的时间尺度上封存了二氧化碳与大气的交换，这取决于呼吸作用在水柱中发生的位置。连接上层海洋和内陆的出口途径有三种：重力泵、迁移泵和混合泵。这些途径受截然不同的机制调节，因此很难量化生物泵对全球碳循环的影响。在这篇综述中，我们评估了通过生物泵创建碳出口和碳封存全球核算的进展情况，并提出了实现这一目标的途径。