Articles | Volume 20, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2685-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-2685-2024
Research article
 | 
12 Dec 2024
Research article |  | 12 Dec 2024

Variations in the biological pump throughout the Miocene: evidence from organic carbon burial in Pacific Ocean sediments

Mitchell Lyle and Annette Olivarez Lyle

Related authors

Why does the Northwest Pacific Ocean (Kamchatka Margin) have a different carbonate time series than the rest of the Pacific? Regional carbonate production is greater than deep Pacific dissolution at the start of interglacials
Mitchell Lyle and Annette Olivarez Lyle
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3515,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3515, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Climate of the Past (CP).
Short summary
Climate, cryosphere and carbon cycle controls on Southeast Atlantic orbital-scale carbonate deposition since the Oligocene (30–0 Ma)
Anna Joy Drury, Diederik Liebrand, Thomas Westerhold, Helen M. Beddow, David A. Hodell, Nina Rohlfs, Roy H. Wilkens, Mitchell Lyle, David B. Bell, Dick Kroon, Heiko Pälike, and Lucas J. Lourens
Clim. Past, 17, 2091–2117, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2091-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-2091-2021, 2021
Short summary

Cited articles

Behrenfeld, M. J., Boss, E. S., Siegel, D. A., and Shea, D. M.: Carbon-based ocean productivity and phytoplankton physiology from space, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 19, GB1006, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GB002299, 2005. 
Berelson, W. M.: Particle settling rates increase with depth in the ocean, Deep-Sea Res. Pt. II, 49, 237–251, 2001. 
Berger, W. H.: Cenozoic sedimentation in the eastern tropical Pacific, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 84, 1941–1954, 1973. 
Boscolo-Galazzo, F., Crichton, K. A., Barker, S., and Pearson, P. N.: Temperature dependency of metabolic rates in the upper ocean: A positive feedback to global climate change?, Global Planet. Change, 170, 201–212, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2018.08.017, 2018. 
Boscolo-Galazzo, F., Crichton, K. A., Ridgwell, A., Mawbey, E. M., Wade, B. S., and Pearson, P. N.: Temperature controls carbon cycling and biological evolution in the ocean twilight zone, Science, 371, 1148–1152, 2021. 
Download
Short summary
Greenhouse gases were key in maintaining past warm intervals, but feedbacks are needed to sustain high atmospheric CO2 levels. We assess whether changes in the ocean degradation depth of plankton-produced organic matter (particulate organic carbon – POC) affect ocean carbon storage. Limited POC burial in sediments during the Miocene Climate Optimum (MCO) warm interval, relative to recent periods, suggests poorer POC transfer to the abyss, leading to the MCO's higher atmospheric CO2 levels.
Share