On January 4, 2023, Nature published an online article entitled “Neogene Burial of Organic Carbon in the Global Ocean”. This research was led by Dr. Li Ziye from OUC’s College of Marine Geosciences, in collaboration with Dr. Zhang Yige from Texas A&M University and renowned scholars from Rice University and the University of Leeds.
This study reveals for the first time the variation of organic carbon burial on the seafloor during the Neogene (23.0-3.0 Ma) and finds that its spatiotemporal variability is much higher than previous estimates. The study shows that there were peak periods of organic carbon burial in the near shore, continental shelves, and deep-sea sediment fans worldwide during the Oligocene and early Miocene. This may be closely related to the high sediment flux caused by orogeny-induced uplift and/or glaciation erosion. Therefore, regions with high land-derived material input became hotspots for organic carbon burial. In the open ocean, organic carbon burial on the seafloor was more influenced by changes in marine productivity. In the middle of the Miocene, climate warming led to an acceleration of the metabolism of heterotrophic bacteria in the ocean, increasing the rate of organic matter remineralization and reducing the rate of organic carbon burial on the seafloor. It thus had a positive feedback effect on the climate. The findings are of great significance to the understanding of the geological history and evolution of marine organic carbon burial, global carbon cycling, and climate system in the context of global warming.
