The biological pump (or ocean carbon biological pump or marine biological carbon pump) is the ocean's biologically driven sequestration of carbon from the atmosphere and land runoff to the ocean interior and seafloor sediments. [1]

The biological carbon pump helps regulate the climate by removing carbon dioxide from the Earth’s surface and moving it into the deep layers of the ocean. This way, it reduces the volume of greenhouse gases in the Ozone layer that cause global …

Mar 15, 2024 · The microbial carbon pump (MCP) refers to a series of microbial physiological and ecological processes that transform labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to refractory DOC (RDOC), which can...

Apr 6, 2020 · When phytoplankton die or are eaten by zooplankton, the carbon-rich fragments sinks deeper into the ocean, where it is, in turn, eaten by other creatures or buried in sediments. This process is key to the “biological carbon pump,” an important part of the global carbon cycle.

Sep 10, 2020 · What is the biological carbon pump? When sunlight hits the ocean’s surface waters, it stimulates tiny marine plants called phytoplankton to photosynthesize. This process removes carbon dioxide dissolved in the water as phytoplankton incorporate the …

Dec 6, 2023 · Here we use several decades of hydrographic observations to produce a top-down estimate of the strength of the BCP with an inverse biogeochemical model that implicitly accounts for all known export...

of ocean carbon is known as the physical pump or solubility pump (Figure). Despite the fact that biological processes are responsible for the majority of the vertical gradient of natural carbon in the ocean, the physico-chemical processes can nevertheless explain the anthropogenic carbon sink observed today. In fact, excess CO 2 in the atmosphere

Apr 11, 2023 · Multiple processes transport carbon into the deep ocean as part of the biological carbon pump, leading to long-term carbon sequestration.

Marine organisms play a critical role in the global carbon cycle via the biological carbon pump. In the well-lit surface ocean, primary producers use sunlight for energy and dissolved inorganic nutrients to transform dissolved CO 2 into organic carbon.

Scientists have long known that the ocean plays an essential role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere, but a study from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) shows that the efficiency of the ocean’s “biological carbon pump” has been drastically underestimated, with implications for future climate assessments.