Organic carbon and metal accumulation rates in Holocene and mid-Cretaceous sediments: palaeoceanographic significance

Abstract

The proportion of the organic carbon produced in oceanic surface waters that is buried in the underlying sediments is highly variable. The organic-carbon preservation factor, the proportion of preserved to produced organic carbon, is much higher in anoxic than in oxic deep waters. Predictability of organic-carbon preservation factors from sedimentary evidence would enable estimation of past primary production rates from measurable accumulation rates of organic carbon in ancient sediments.