Biogeosciences www.biogeosciences.net 1726-4170 1726-4189 5 1 2008 10.5194/bg-5-43-2008 http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/43/2008/ http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/43/2008/bg-5-43-2008.html http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/43/2008/bg-5-43-2008.pdf 43 53 2008-01-24 Short-term fate of phytodetritus in sediments across the Arabian Sea Oxygen Minimum Zone J. H. Andersson han@dmi.dk C. Woulds M. Schwartz G. L. Cowie L. A. Levin K. Soetaert J. J. Middelburg Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Centre for Estuarine and Marine Ecology, POB 140, 4400 AC Yerseke, The Netherlands University of Edinburgh, School of Geosciences, West Mains Road, EH9 3JW, Scotland Integrative Oceanography Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA 92093-0218, USA now at: Danish Meteorological Institute, Lyngbyvej 100, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark now at: University of West Florida, 11000 University Parkway, Pensacola, FL 32514, USA The short-term fate of phytodetritus was investigated across the Pakistan margin of the Arabian Sea at water depths ranging from 140 to 1850 m, encompassing the oxygen minimum zone (~100–1100 m). Phytodetritus sedimentation events were simulated by adding ~44 mmol ¹³C-labelled algal material per m² to surface sediments in retrieved cores. Cores were incubated in the dark, at in situ temperature and oxygen concentrations. 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