The role of extreme events in organic matter cycling

A review of the current literature reveals the dynamic nature of organic matter (OM) transport and burial along oceanic margins as a result of stochastic and intense events such as floods, marine storms, and gravity-driven flows. Specifically, the particulate OM supply to most coastal zones is extremely episodic and driven by events such as storms and snowmelt. The resulting floods promote the deposition of ephemeral deposits in shallow regions that are subsequently reworked by marine storms and redistributed along the sediment dispersal systems. In parallel, the shelf-slope exchange of particulate OM at the shelf-edge is driven by gravity-triggered processes including submarine failures, turbidity currents, earthquake-supported sediment gravity flows, and dense water overflowing off continental shelves.
This session is intended to highlight the major processes that affect particulate OM delivery, composition, and preservation in different event-dominated systems. We invite presentations from both modeling and observational perspectives dealing with the OM cycling in environments dominated by floods, marine storms, and gravity-driven flows.

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