Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 339, Issue 6119, Pages 540-543Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1229578
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Funding
- NSF [OCE-0961372]
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Junior Fellowship
- Henry and Wendy Breck Foundation
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We present a framework for interpreting the carbon isotopic composition of sedimentary rocks, which in turn requires a fundamental reinterpretation of the carbon cycle and redox budgets over Earth's history. We propose that authigenic carbonate, produced in sediment pore fluids during early diagenesis, has played a major role in the carbon cycle in the past. This sink constitutes a minor component of the carbon isotope mass balance under the modern, high levels of atmospheric oxygen but was much larger in times of low atmospheric O-2 or widespread marine anoxia. Waxing and waning of a global authigenic carbonate sink helps to explain extreme carbon isotope variations in the Proterozoic, Paleozoic, and Triassic.
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