Phosphorus burial in the ocean over glacial-interglacial time scales

Abstract. The role of nutrients and their impact on primary productivity and the fluctuations in atmospheric CO2 over glacial-interglacial periods are intensely debated. One of the cornerstones is the role of phosphorus (P; in the form of phosphate). Suggestions as to the importance of P evolved from an earlier proposal that P actively participated in changing productivity rates and therefore climate change, to the most recent one that changes in the glacial ocean inventory of phosphorus were small and not influential if compared to other macronutrients, such as nitrogen. Using new data coming from a selection of ODP sites, we illustrate oceanic P sedimentary phases distribution and reactive P burial fluxes, and we show how P burial fluxes changed over the last glacial-interglacial period. Concentrations of reactive P are generally lower during glacial times, while mass accumulation rates (MAR) show higher variability. On a global scale, glacial burial fluxes of reactive P are lower than those during interglacial periods by 7–10%, because lack of burial of reactive P on the glacial reduced shelf was apparently not compensated by burial in other regions of the ocean. Using the calculated changes in P burial, we try to infer their possible impact on the phosphate inventory in the world oceans. Using a simple mathematical approach, we find that these changes alone could have increased the phosphate inventory of glacial ocean waters by 20–40% compared to interglacial stages. Variations in the C/P reactive ratios and in the P sedimentary phases distribution at the investigated sites seem to indicate that at the onset of interglacial stages, shallower sites experienced an increase in reactive P concentrations. This seems to point to P-richer waters at glacial terminations, supporting the shelf-nutrient hypothesis and giving phosphorus a role as a potential player in climate change.