Issue of the relationship between primary productivity of organic carbon in ocean and phosphate accumulation (Holocene-Late Jurassic)

Abstract

By analogy with the present-day ocean, the primary productivity of paleoceans can be reconstructed using calculations based on the content of organic carbon in sediments and their accumulation rates. Results of calculations based on literature data show that the primary productivity of organic carbon, the mass of phosphorus involved in the process, and the content of phosphorus in oceanic waters were relatively stable in the Mesozoic and Late Mesozoic. Prior to precipitation on the seafloor together with the biogenic detritus, the dissolved phosphorus could repeatedly be involved in the biogeochemical cycle. Therefore, only less than 0.1% of phosphorus is retained in bottom sediments. The bulk phosphorus accumulation rate in oceanic sediments is partly consistent with the calculated primary productivity. Some epochs of phosphate accumulation also coincide with maximums of primary productivity and minimums of the fossilization coefficient of organic carbon. The latter fact can testify to episodes of the acceleration of organic matter mineralization and the release of phosphorus from sediments, leading to increase in the phosphorus reserve in paleoceans and phosphate accumulation in some places.