Benthic oxygen flux, bottom water oxygen concentration and core top organic carbon content in the deep northeast Pacific Ocean

A general and quantitative correlation between benthic oxygen flux (F-O2,mu mol cm(-2) yr(-1)), bottom water oxygen concentration ([O-2](BW), mu mol kg(-1)), and core top organic carbon content (C-org, %) has been derived from existing data from the deep northeast Pacific Ocean: F-O2 = pi C-org[O-2](BW)/(126+[O-2](BW)) where pi = 44.4 has the units of mu mol cm(-2) yr(-1) (% dry organic C)(-1). Environments described by this equation include suboxic dasins, the continental slope, the continental rise, and oxic open ocean sediments. This relationship and the data set it represents show that F-O2 increases with the increase of [0(2)](BW) away from the continental slope and borderlands and then decreases with the decrease of C-org from the continental rise towards the open ocean. The reaction rate constant for aerobic respiration estimated from the above equation ranges from 5 x 10(-11) s(-1) in sediments from s the open ocean to 5 x 10(-9) s(-1) in sediments from continental slopes. With this equation, F-O2, values may also be predicted for other areas of the World Ocean, and such predictions agree with recent measurements in the Atlantic Ocean. The existence of this bread-based relationship indicates that benthic oxygen consumption rate in the deep ocean is controlled by the availability of both organic carbon and oxygen.