Stunning Fjords in Norway and Around the World Suck up Carbon

It turns out that fjords may play more of a role in the carbon cycle than once expected. Scientists have found that fjords in Norway and around the world suck up millions of tons of carbon each year.

Fjords are long, deep and narrow estuaries formed at high latitudes during glacial periods as advancing glaciers incise major valleys near the coast. They are found in North Western Europe, Greenland, North America, New Zealand and Antarctica. Since fjords are deep and often contain low amounts of oxygen, they're stable sites for carbon-rich sediments to accumulate.

Carbon burial is an important natural process that provides the largest carbon sink on the planet and influences atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels at multi-thousand-year time scales. That's why researchers took a closer look at these fjords to see just how much carbon was being accumulated.

The scientists conducted fieldwork in Fiordland and analyzed data from 573 surface sediment samples and 124 sediment cores from fjords around the world. In the end, they found that while fjords only account for .1 percent of surface area of oceans globally, they account for 11 percent of annual marine carbon burial globally.

"In essence, fjords appear to act as a major temporary storage site for organic carbon in between glacial periods. This finding has important implications for improving our understanding of global carbon cycling and climate change," said Candida Savage, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The findings reveal that these fjords are important parts of the carbon cycle globally. This is especially important to note as carbon dioxide continues to enter our atmosphere.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

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