Articles | Volume 22, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1929-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1929-2025
Research article
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22 Apr 2025
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 22 Apr 2025

Cenozoic pelagic accumulation rates and biased sampling of the deep-sea record

Johan Renaudie and David B. Lazarus

Data sets

Archive of Neptune (NSB) database backups J. Renaudie et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10063218

Model code and software

Code and additional material for 'Cenozoic pelagic accumulation rates and biased sampling of the deep-sea record' J. Renaudie and D. Lazarus https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13301795

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Co-editor-in-chief
This paper reveals a previously unrecognized bias in the marine sediment record, challenging conventional interpretations of long-term carbon sequestration and weathering trends. While biases in the fossil and geological records are well-studied, this study demonstrates that deep-sea sedimentation data are also systematically skewed, necessitating a critical reevaluation of widely used paleoceanographic proxies. As a comprehensive meta-analysis of marine core data, these findings have far-reaching implications, highlighting the need to account for age-dependent biases in sedimentation-related proxies to refine our understanding of Earth's past climate and carbon cycle dynamics.
Short summary
We provide a new compilation of rates at which sediments deposited in the deep sea over the last 70 million years. We highlight a bias, linked to the drilling process, that makes it more likely for high rates to be recovered for younger sediments than for older ones. Correcting for this bias, the record shows, contrary to prior estimates, a more stable history, thus providing some insights on the past mismatch between physico-chemical model estimates and observations.
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