Controls on phosphorus regeneration and burial during formation of eastern Mediterranean sapropels

Abstract

The carbon (C) and phosphorus (P) geochemistry of sapropels from four sites in the eastern Mediterranean Sea was determined to obtain more insight into the role of differences in sediment accumulation rates and bottom water anoxia on P regeneration and burial in sediments. Sediment C org/P org (with org=organic) ratios above Redfield indicate enhanced regeneration of P relative to C from organic matter during formation of the most recent sapropel S1 and a Pliocene sapropel (ODP-site 969E; i-282c). Release of P from Fe-oxides was relatively unimportant. Increased burial of Ca-P (authigenic carbonate fluorapatite and/or biogenic hydroxyapatite) occurred but was of minor importance compared to the enhanced P release from organic matter. For sapropel S1, C org/P org and C org/P reac, (with reac=reactive, defined as the sum of organic, Fe-bound, authigenic and biogenic Ca-P) ratios decreased with increasing sedimentation rate and oxygen exposure and decreasing water depth. Whether the water column in the deep basin was dysoxic/semi-euxinic (S1) or euxinic (Pliocene) does not appear to affect the estimated burial efficiencies of P org and P reac. Enhanced C org burial under the euxinic water column explains the much higher C org/P org and C org/P reac ratios in the Pliocene sapropel (on average ∼2860 and ∼760, respectively) compared to sapropel S1 (on average ∼530 and ∼160, respectively).