Accelerated light carbon sequestration following late Paleocene-early Eocene carbon cycle perturbations

Carbon releases into the climate system produce global warming and ocean acidification events that can be reversed eventually by carbon sequestration. However, the underlying controls on the timescales of carbon removal, and their dependence on the amplitude of the initial perturbation, are poorly understood. Here, we assess a series of late Paleocene-early Eocene (LPEE) carbon cycle perturbations (-56-52 Ma) of different amplitudes to constrain carbon removal timescales. Carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) and sedimentation patterns for the largest event, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), allow identification of a light carbon injection that appeared -85 kyr after the PETM onset. This CIE may have been triggered by orbital forcing of long (-400 kyr) and short (-100 kyr) eccentricity maxima. The various LPEE light carbon injections were followed by exponential carbon removal trends with half-life (t1/2) estimates of -6-26 kyr. These values are smaller than background estimates for the modern carbon cycle (t1/2 > 100 kyr), which reveals accelerated light carbon sequestration. We find that one estimated t1/2 period coincided temporally with ocean acidification recovery in different locations with contrasting paleo-water depths. This pattern indicates enhanced chemical weathering following LPEE CIEs; however, chemical weathering timescales are an order of magnitude longer than the observed t1/2 estimates. This reveals that several carbon processes were optimized during LPEE CIE recovery. Similar t1/2 estimates are obtained for light carbon injections of different sizes, which suggests that carbon removal was optimized to conditions induced by the initial perturbation. Temperature controls on oxygen solubility may have accelerated the oceanic biological pump in proportion to each LPEE carbon injection. This process may have caused accelerated carbon sequestration during LPEE CIE recovery and produced the short carbon removal timescales identified by t1/2 estimates of LPEE carbon cycle perturbations. (c) 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Carbon releases into the climate system result in global warming and ocean acidification, which can be reversed by carbon sequestration. However, the controls on carbon removal timescales and their dependence on initial perturbation amplitude are poorly understood. This study assesses late Paleocene-early Eocene (LPEE) carbon cycle perturbations to constrain carbon removal timescales and reveals accelerated carbon sequestration during LPEE carbon injection recovery. The short carbon removal timescales are likely related to accelerated oceanic biological pump and enhanced chemical weathering.