Thorsten Dittmar, a geochemist at the University of Oldenburg, Germany, has been studying the composition and fate of dissolved organic carbon in the ocean for more than two decades. (IMAGE)
Caption
Every litre of seawater contains on average one milligram of these water-soluble carbon compounds. If this figure is extrapolated to the total volume of the oceans, it means that around 700 billion tonnes of carbon are stored in DOM – more than in all living organisms on land and sea combined, and roughly equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Thorsten Dittmar, a geochemist at the University of Oldenburg, is using advanced methods to determine the amount, composition and distribution of dissolved organic carbon in the marine environment in order to elucidate the role of these compounds in the global carbon cycle.
Credit
Daniel Schmidt / University of Oldenburg
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