Organic carbon burial with reactive iron across global environments

Preservation of organic carbon (OC) in marine and terrestrial deposits is enhanced by bonding with reactive iron (FeR) phases. The association of OC with FeR (OC-FeR) provides physical protection and hinders microbiological degradation. Roughly 20% of all OC stored in unconsolidated marine sediments and 40% of all OC present in Quaternary terrestrial deposits is preserved as OC-FeR, but this value varies from 10 to 80% across depositional environments. In this work, we provide a new assessment of global OC-FeR burial rates in both marine and terrestrial environments, using published estimates of the fraction of OC associated with FeR, carbon burial, and probabilistic modelling. We estimate the marine OC-FeR sink at between 31 – 70 Mt C yr-1 (mean 52 Mt C yr-1), and the terrestrial OC-FeR sink at between 171 - 946 Mt C yr-1 (mean 472 Mt C yr-1). In marine environments, continental shelves (mean 17 Mt C yr-1) and deltaic/estuarine environments (mean 11 Mg C yr-1) are the primary locations of OC-FeR burial. On land, croplands (279 Mt C yr-1) and grasslands (121 Mt C yr-1) dominate the OC-FeR burial budget. Changes in the Earth system through geological time likely alter the OC-FeR pools, particularly in marine locations. For example, periods of intense explosive volcanism may lead to increased net OC-FeR burial in marine sediments. Our work highlights the importance of OC-FeR in marine carbon burial and demonstrates how OC-FeR burial rates may be an order of magnitude greater in terrestrial environments, those potentially most sensitive to anthropogenic impacts.