Sediments and carbon burial on the continental margins
Lonnie Leithold, Steve Kuehl, Kathy Surpless, Adam Hoffman
At the 2014 Workshop: Bringing NSF MARGINS Research Into the Undergraduate Curriculum, participants conducted a paired review for each mini-lesson in the collection. Prior to the workshop, all mini-lessons had been submitted and pairs of reviewers were assigned. Additional time was allocated at the workshop to complete these reviews.
The pairs of reviewers for each mini-lesson consisted of an author from the same initiative with an author from another GeoPRISMS initiative (e.g., an S2S author paired with an RCL author). Both the mini-lesson author and the peer review author used the rubric developed as part of the On the Cutting Edge project.
The peer reviewer and author discussed the reviewer's comments on the mini-lesson. Authors were encouraged to work on revisions to their mini-lesson based on the feedback they received both at and following the workshop. In addition, a pedagogical expert met with each initiative team to discuss the mini-lesson revision plans and ensure strong learning goals and assessment strategies.
This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection
This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.
- First Publication: October 7, 2015
- Reviewed: November 25, 2019 -- Reviewed by the On the Cutting Edge Activity Review Process
Summary
This is one component of the Source to Sink Mini Lesson Set
This lesson will explore the factors that control the character and fate of organic carbon delivered by rivers from the continents to the oceans. A Powerpoint presentation and in-class discussion is used to introduce the students to aspects of carbon cycling in sedimentary systems, with particular focus on the sources of particulate organic carbon discharge from rivers to the continental margins. Students will then complete a homework assignment in which they plot data on carbon burial efficiency on various continental shelves and answer questions about the possible controls on differences amongst systems. A guided in-class discussion would explore the implications of variations in carbon burial on margins over space and time.
Topics
Tectonics Grade Level
College Upper (15-16)
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Learning Goals
- Students will be able to describe the role of source-to-sink sedimentary systems in the global carbon cycle
- Students will be able to predict which continental margin environments might be characterized by the highest organic carbon burial efficiencies
- Students will be able to articulate the possible effects of climate change and human perturbations on sedimentary systems (e.g. construction of dams) on carbon burial on the continental margins.
The relationship between sediment yield and the age of particulate organic carbon (POC) discharged from twelve rivers (sediment yield from Milliman and Farnsworth, 2011, POC data compiled from the literature by Lonnie Leithold)
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Provenance: Data compiled by Lonnie Leithold
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Key concepts:
- Most of the organic matter produced on land or the ocean is degraded (not buried).
- The small fraction that is buried over the long term has a key control on atmospheric chemistry and climate, and is the precursor to petroleum.
- The carbon carried by rivers includes fractions of different age and reactivity such as recent plant debris, aged soil, and ancient rock carbon.
- The composition of what emerges into the coastal ocean strongly reflects the properties of the watershed (including its tectonic setting)
- Rapid sediment burial favors high organic carbon burial efficiency.
Context for Use
Upper level undergraduate courses in sedimentology/stratigraphy, marine geology, low temperature geochemistry
Students should have an understanding of the differences between active and passive margins, the short and long term carbon cycles, and radiocarbon (14C) dating
Along with introductory and follow-up discussions of the material, this lesson could occupy one to two class periods and a homework assignment.
Description and Teaching Materials
This module consists of the following components:
1) An introductory lecture (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 3.6MB Sep10 15) on the role of margins, especially river-dominated margins, in the carbon cycle. Questions for break-out discussions during the lecture are included
2) A homework exercise in which students plot and describe data and then consider its implications.
Carbon Burial on Continental Margins-- Controls from Source to Sink (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 564kB Nov14 13)
3) A guided discussion of the homework results and discussion of potential influences of tectonics, climate change, and humans on organic carbon burial.
Assessment
The students will complete a homework exercise. Exam questions will be used to assess their synthesis of the lecture material, discussion, and homework.
References and Resources
- Berner 2003 Nature- The long-term carbon cycle
- Blair and Leithold
- Hossler, K., and Bauer, J.E.,2013, Amounts, isotope character, and ages of organic and inorganic carbon exported from rivers to ocean margins: 1. Estimates of terrestrial losses and inputs to the Middle Atlantic Bight: Global Biogeochemical Cycles 27, 1-16.
- Griffith et al., 2010
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