TY - JOUR
T1 - The Eurasian epicontinental sea was an important carbon sink during the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum
AU - Kaya, Mustafa Y.
AU - Dupont-Nivet, Guillaume
AU - Frieling, Joost
AU - Fioroni, Chiara
AU - Rohrmann, Alexander
AU - Altıner, Sevinç Özkan
AU - Vardar, Ezgi
AU - Tanyaş, H.
AU - Mamtimin, Mehmut
AU - Zhaojie, Guo
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Birgit Plessen (GFZ) for assistance with the TC, TOC, bulk organic δC analyses and Arnold van Dijk (Utrecht University) for assistance with carbonate isotope analyses. M.Y.K., G.D.N., and A.R. acknowledge funding from European Research Council consolidator grant MAGIC 649081. The authorities in China provided the permissions for sampling. 13 org
Funding Information:
We thank Birgit Plessen (GFZ) for assistance with the TC, TOC, bulk organic δ13Corg analyses and Arnold van Dijk (Utrecht University) for assistance with carbonate isotope analyses. M.Y.K., G.D.N., and A.R. acknowledge funding from European Research Council consolidator grant MAGIC 649081. The authorities in China provided the permissions for sampling.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - The Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (ca. 56 million years ago) offers a primary analogue for future global warming and carbon cycle recovery. Yet, where and how massive carbon emissions were mitigated during this climate warming event remains largely unknown. Here we show that organic carbon burial in the vast epicontinental seaways that extended over Eurasia provided a major carbon sink during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. We coupled new and existing stratigraphic analyses to a detailed paleogeographic framework and using spatiotemporal interpolation calculated ca. 720–1300 Gt organic carbon excess burial, focused in the eastern parts of the Eurasian epicontinental seaways. A much larger amount (2160–3900 Gt C, and when accounting for the increase in inundated shelf area 7400–10300 Gt C) could have been sequestered in similar environments globally. With the disappearance of most epicontinental seas since the Oligocene-Miocene, an effective negative carbon cycle feedback also disappeared making the modern carbon cycle critically dependent on the slower silicate weathering feedback.
AB - The Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (ca. 56 million years ago) offers a primary analogue for future global warming and carbon cycle recovery. Yet, where and how massive carbon emissions were mitigated during this climate warming event remains largely unknown. Here we show that organic carbon burial in the vast epicontinental seaways that extended over Eurasia provided a major carbon sink during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. We coupled new and existing stratigraphic analyses to a detailed paleogeographic framework and using spatiotemporal interpolation calculated ca. 720–1300 Gt organic carbon excess burial, focused in the eastern parts of the Eurasian epicontinental seaways. A much larger amount (2160–3900 Gt C, and when accounting for the increase in inundated shelf area 7400–10300 Gt C) could have been sequestered in similar environments globally. With the disappearance of most epicontinental seas since the Oligocene-Miocene, an effective negative carbon cycle feedback also disappeared making the modern carbon cycle critically dependent on the slower silicate weathering feedback.
KW - ITC-ISI-JOURNAL-ARTICLE
KW - ITC-GOLD
U2 - 10.1038/s43247-022-00451-4
DO - 10.1038/s43247-022-00451-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85130991175
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 3
JO - Communications Earth & Environment
JF - Communications Earth & Environment
IS - 1
M1 - 124
ER -
