Abstract
The early diagenetic processes occuring in ocean margin sediments are discussed with an emphasis on the carbon, nitrogen and oxygen cycle. We first use simple mass-balance assumptions to derive a relationship between the fluxes at the sediment-water interface and the processes that occur in the sediments. This allows amongst others relating the sediment community oxygen consumption rate (SCOC) to total organic carbon deposition. It is shown, based on literature data that, overall, SCOC decreases significantly with depth, equivalent with a decline of organic carbon flux from about 35 g C m-2 yr1 at 100 m to a flux of 4 g C m-2 yr 1 at 4000 m depth. A simple 0-dimensional and two more complex 1-dimensional models are then used to demonstrate the applicability of diagenetic modelling in interpreting the species distribution vertically in the sediment and quantifying the processes occurring in sediments. Finally, the different view of biochemists and biologists of the sediment is discussed. It is concluded that much can be gained from a combined biochemical and biological analysis of the sediments.
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Soetaert, K., Middelburg, J., Wijsman, J., Herman, P., Heip, C. (2002). Ocean Margin Early Diagenetic Processes and Models. In: Wefer, G., Billett, D., Hebbeln, D., Jørgensen, B.B., Schlüter, M., van Weering, T.C.E. (eds) Ocean Margin Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05127-6_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-05127-6_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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