Balancing the (carbon) budget: Using linear inverse models to estimate carbon flows and mass-balance 13C:15N labelling experiments in low oxygen sediments.

Over 1 million km² of seafloor experience permanent low-oxygen conditions within oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). OMZs are predicted to grow as a consequence of climate change, potentially affecting oceanic biogeochemical cycles. The Arabian Sea OMZ impinges upon the western Indian continental margin at bathyal depths (150 - 1500 m) producing a strong depth dependent oxygen gradient at the sea floor. The influence of the OMZ upon the short term processing of organic matter by sediment ecosystems was investigated using in situ stable isotope pulse chase experiments. These deployed doses of ¹³C:¹⁵N labeled organic matter onto the sediment surface at four stations from across the OMZ (water depth 540 - 1100 m; [O₂] = 0.35 - 15 μM). In order to prevent experimentally anoxia, the mesocosms were not sealed. ¹³C and ¹⁵N labels were traced into sediment, bacteria, fauna and ¹³C into sediment porewater DIC and DOC. However, the DIC and DOC flux to the water column could not be measured, limiting our capacity to obtain mass-balance for C in each experimental mesocosm. Linear Inverse Modeling (LIM) provides a method to obtain a mass-balanced model of carbon flow that integrates stable-isotope tracer data with community biomass and biogeochemical flux data from a range of sources. Here we present an adaptation of the LIM methodology used to investigate how ecosystem structure influenced carbon flow across the Indian margin OMZ. We demonstrate how oxygen conditions affect food-web complexity, affecting the linkages between the bacteria, foraminifera and metazoan fauna, and their contributions to benthic respiration. The food-web models demonstrate how changes in ecosystem complexity are associated with oxygen availability across the OMZ and allow us to obtain a complete carbon budget for the stationa where stable-isotope labelling experiments were conducted.

A comparison of carbon flow from pre-labelled and pulse-labelled plants

Perennial rye-grass was subjected to two different¹⁴C labelling regimes to enable a partitioning of the carbon sources contributing to rhizosphere carbon-flow. Plant/soil microcosms were designed which enabled rye-grass plants to either receive a single pulse of¹⁴C-CO₂ or to be pre-labelled using a series of¹⁴C-CO₂ pulses, allowing the fate of newly photoassimilated carbon and carbon lost by root decomposition to be followed into the soil. For young rye-grass plants grown over a short period, rhizosphere carbon flow was found to be dominated by newly photoassimilated carbon. Evidence for this came from the observed percentage of the total¹⁴C budget (i.e. total¹⁴C-CO₂ fixed by the plants) lost from the root/soil system, which was 30 times greater for the pulse labelled compared to pre-labelled plants. Root decomposition was found to be less at 10°C compared to 20-25°C, though input of¹⁴C into the soil was the same at both temperatures. © 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers.