Coupled hydrological and carbon cycle feedbacks on global warming at the land/ocean interface
This project seeks to explore the impact of intensified hydrological cycling in a warmer world on the flux and burial of carbon at the continental margins. We are documenting the physical and chemical state of organic carbon in marine margin sequences spanning the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum to reconstruct changes in the source, history, and burial rates of carbon through this event.
Organic carbon vs. surface area

Mineral surface area enhances the stabilization and burial of organic carbon in modern sediments (Mayer, 1994) and may have been involved in PETM carbon cycle feedbacks.

Organic particulates deposited in marginal marine rocks during the PETM.

 

Organic particulates deposited in marginal marine rocks during the PETM.
Personnel: Aya Schneider-Mor, Jesse Greene