Impacts of global change on ocean dissolved organic carbon (DOC) cycling

Abstract

The marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool is an important player in the functioning of marine ecosystems. The DOC pool is at the interface between the chemical and the biological worlds, it fuels marine food webs, and is a major component of the Earth’s carbon cycling. We reviewed the research showing impacts of global change stressors and disturbances on the DOC cycling, specifically: ocean warming, acidification, deoxygenation, glacial and sea ice derived material, changed inflow from rivers, changing ocean circulation, and wet/dry depositions. A unified outcome of the future impacts of these stressors/disturbances on the global ocean DOC production and degradation was not possible, due to e.g. regional difference and difference in stressors/disturbances impacts, but general patterns for each stressor/disturbance will be presented