Oxygen and silica flux from 9 multicorer profiles

DOI

Pore water profiles from 24 stations in the South Atlantic (located in the Guinea, Angola, Cape, Guyana, and Argentine basins) show good correlations of oxygen and silicon, suggesting microbially mediated dissolution of biogenic silica. We used simple analytical transport and reaction models to show the tight coupling of the reconstructed process kinetics of aerobic respiration and silicon regeneration. A generic transport and reaction model successfully reproduced the majority of Si pore water profiles from aerobic respiration rates, confirming that the dissolution of biogenic silica (BSi) occurs proportionally to O2 consumption. Possibly limited to well-oxygenated sediments poor in BSi, benthic Si fluxes can be inferred from O2 uptake with satisfactory accuracy. Compared to aerobic respiration kinetics, the solubility of BSi emerged as a less influential parameter for silicon regeneration. Understanding the role of bacteria for silicon regeneration requires further investigations, some of which are outlined. The proposed aerobic respiration control of benthic silicon cycling is suitable for benthic–pelagic models. The empirical relation of BSi dissolution to aerobic respiration can be used for regionalization assessments and estimates of the silicon budget to increase the understanding of global primary and export production patterns.

Supplement to: Holstein, Jan M; Hensen, Christian (2010): Microbial mediation of benthic biogenic silica dissolution. Geo-Marine Letters, 30(5), 477-492

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.788575
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-009-0181-3
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.788575
Provenance
Creator Holstein, Jan M; Hensen, Christian
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2010
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Language English
Resource Type Supplementary Publication Series of Datasets; Collection
Format application/zip
Size 2 datasets
Discipline Earth System Research
Spatial Coverage (-51.443W, -34.526S, 13.073E, 2.680N)
Temporal Coverage Begin 1996-02-02T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 1999-12-13T18:44:00Z