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，引发了它们在全球碳循环中的作用的问题。此前推测，陆地有机碳主要在架子上被焚烧，大多数浊流系统目前处于不活动状态。因此，全球碳循环中不考虑浊流，并且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，在一系列环境下，浊流埋藏陆地有机碳的效率很高（>60-100%），而且浊流发生的频率比以前想象的要高，尽管浊流在海平面更为活跃低位。这导致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%）的全球估计进行了修订。海平面低位期间埋藏通量的大幅增加也可能被低估；因此，浊流引起的有机碳循环可能在大气二氧化碳和气候的长期变化中发挥作用。