The Partitioning of Organic Carbon Cycle in Coastal Sediments of Kwangyang Bay

Biogeochemical cycling of organic carbon is quantitatively partitioned in terms of 1) flux to the ocean bottom, 2) benthic utilization at or near the sediment-water interface, 3) remineralization and 4) burial within sediments, by making an independent determination for each component process from a single coastal site in Kwangyang Bay. The partitioning suggests that the benthic utilization at or near the sediment-water interface is the major mode of organic carbon cycling at the site. The benthic utilization takes 61.8% (441.6 gCm$^{-2}$ yr $^{-1}$) of the total near-bottem organic carbon flux, 714.6 gCm $^{-2}$yr$^{-1}$, and far exceeds the remineralization of organic carbon within the sediments which amounts only to 6% (41.24 gCm$^{-2}$yr$^{-1}$) of the total near-bottom flux. The residence time is about 1.6 years for the sedimentary metabolic organic carbon in the upper 45 cm. The dominant partitioning of the benthic utilization in the carbon budget suggests that most of labile organic carbons are consumed at or near the sediment-water interface and are left over to the sediment column by significantly diminished amounts.