Articles | Volume 22, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2541-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2541-2025
Research article
 | 
05 Jun 2025
Research article |  | 05 Jun 2025

Depositional controls and budget of organic carbon burial in fine-grained sediments of the North Sea – the Helgoland Mud Area as a natural laboratory

Daniel Müller, Bo Liu, Walter Geibert, Moritz Holtappels, Lasse Sander, Elda Miramontes, Heidi Taubner, Susann Henkel, Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, Denise Bethke, Ingrid Dohrmann, and Sabine Kasten

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Coastal and shelf sediments are the most important sinks for organic carbon (OC) on Earth. We produced a new high-resolution sediment and porewater data set from the Helgoland Mud Area (HMA), North Sea, to determine which depositional factors control the preservation of OC. The burial efficiency is highest in an area of high sedimentation and terrigenous OC. The HMA covers 0.09 % of the North Sea but accounts for 0.76 % of its OC accumulation, highlighting the importance of the depocentre.
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