Submarine turbidity currents form the largest sediment accumulations on Earth, raising the question of their role in global carbon cycles. It was previously inferred that terrestrial organic carbon was primarily incinerated on shelves and that most turbidity current systems are presently inactive. Turbidity currents were thus not considered in global carbon cycles, and the burial efficiency of global terrestrial organic carbon was considered low to moderate (∼10–44%). However, recent work has shown that burial of terrestrial organic carbon by turbidity currents is highly efficient (>60–100%) in a range of settings and that flows occur more frequently than once thought, although they were far more active at sea-level lowstands. This leads to revised global estimates for mass flux (∼62–90 Mt C/year) and burial efficiency (∼31–45%) of terrestrial organic carbon in marine sediments. Greatly increased burial fluxes during sea-level lowstands are also likely underestimated; thus, organic carbon cycling by turbidity currents could play a role in long-term changes in atmospheric CO2 and climate.

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全球浊流泵及其对有机碳循环的影响


海底浊流形成了地球上最大的沉积物堆积，这引发了它们在全球碳循环中的作用的问题。以前推断，陆地有机碳主要在货架上焚烧，并且大多数浊度电流系统目前处于不活跃状态。因此，全球碳循环中没有考虑浊流，全球陆地有机碳的埋藏效率被认为是低到中等 （∼10-44%）。然而，最近的研究表明，浊流对陆地有机碳的掩埋在一系列环境中是高效的（>60–100%），并且流动的发生频率比以前想象的要高，尽管它们在海平面低处要活跃得多。这导致了对海洋沉积物中陆地有机碳的质量通量 （∼62-90 Mt C/年） 和埋藏效率 （∼31-45%） 的全球估计。在海平面低架期间，埋藏通量的大幅增加也可能被低估了;因此，浊流循环的有机碳可能在大气 CO2 和气候的长期变化中发挥作用。