Can we Constrain Geographical Variability in the Biological Carbon
Pump's Transfer Efficiency from Observations?
Abstract
The biological carbon pump transfers large amounts of carbon from the
atmosphere into the ocean’s interior, contributing to oceanic carbon
sequestration. Efforts to identify the geographical variability in the
transfer efficiency of sinking organic material to depth have yielded
inconsistent results. This may in part be due to methodological
differences across studies in collecting or analysing particulate
organic carbon (POC) flux data. To address this, we compiled data of POC
flux and key BCP metrics from selected data-rich locations across
biogeographically distinct ocean regions. We integrated multiple BCP
observational techniques, encompassing diverse sampling methods,
sampling efforts and working protocols, to capture diverse facets of POC
flux at varying spatiotemporal resolutions. To make the data comparable
across studies, we harmonised reported errors and used Monte Carlo error
propagation to calculate uncertainties consistently. Our analysis of BCP
metrics from observation-based studies reveals large local
uncertainties, blurring expected geographical patterns.