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Unraveling the Unseen Players in the Ocean - A Field Guide to Water Chemistry and Marine Microbiology

Unraveling the Unseen Players in the Ocean - A Field Guide to Water Chemistry and Marine Microbiology

Published on: November 5, 2014

The Marine Organic Sulfur Cycle.

Morgan Reed Raven¹

¹Department of Earth Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA;

Annual Review of Marine Science

|August 25, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Organic sulfur (OS) originates from marine life, geological processes, and anoxic sulfurization. Understanding these diverse OS sources and their environmental transformations is crucial for the global carbon cycle and climate insights.

Keywords:

biogeochemical cycles marine ecosystems marine particles sedimentary organic matter sediment–water interface sulfurization

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Area of Science:

Marine chemistry
Biogeochemistry
Organic geochemistry

Background:

Marine organic sulfur (OS) is primarily produced by primary producers.
Additional OS sources include abiogenic sulfurization and geological weathering.
These distinct OS sources have different properties influencing their environmental fate.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the sources, transport, and transformation of marine organic sulfur.
To connect the surface ocean OS cycle with longer-lived reservoirs.
To highlight the implications of OS fluxes for the carbon cycle and climate.

Main Methods:

Literature review of marine OS cycling.
Analysis of particle fluxes and organic matter dynamics.
Synthesis of knowledge on OS sources and transformations.

Main Results:

Identified three main sources of marine OS: biogenic, abiogenic, and geological.
Highlighted how OS source properties affect its environmental fate, forming recalcitrant organic matter and kerogen.
Established links between surface ocean OS cycling and deep, long-lived reservoirs.

Conclusions:

Understanding diverse OS sources and their transformations is key to marine organic matter dynamics.
Marine OS fluxes significantly impact the carbon cycle and climate on various timescales.
Further research on marine OS is critical for predicting future climate scenarios.