Li, Ziye; Zhang, Yi Ge; Torres, Mark A; Mills, Benjamin J W (2022): Neogene burial of organic carbon in the global ocean [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.950679

This dataset contains the calculation process of global organic carbon burial fluxes over the Neogene (23.0-2.6 Ma) period. The calculation involves a series of consecutive steps. First, we screened 1508 sites from the Deep Sea Drilling Program (DSDP, Leg 1-96), Ocean Drilling Program (Leg 100-210), Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP, Exp 301-312), and International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP, Exp 317-363). Out of the 1508 sites, 81 sites were identified with available total organic carbon concentrations (TOC%), dry bulk density, and age model datums covering most of the past 23 million years. The mass accumulation rates (MARs) of organic carbon (OC) were calculated for each site based on sedimentation rate, bulk density, and TOC%, and were used to determine the spatial and temporal variability of OC burial in the Neogene. Given the inherent bias introduced by any such division, we employed three different subdivision strategies and compared the results to assess the uncertainty of our global reconstruction. To evaluate the potential impact of the Sadler Effect on our reconstruction, we compared the averaging interval (duration of time between tie-points in an age model), sedimentation accumulation, and OC burial for each record to determine the potential for spuriously patterns to arise in our global OC burial flux reconstruction. Also, we compare our global OC burial flux reconstruction with existing forward models of Neogene biogeochemical cycles, as well as include our reconstruction as a forcing in new forward and inverse model runs. This model-data comparison was used to test the accuracy of existing numerical models and to provide insights into observed changes in Neogene climate, atmospheric composition (pCO2), and global erosion/sediment burial rates.