ABSTRACT
Particulate and dissolved exchanges between pelagic and benthic compartments have served as the foci of numerous studies to enhance our understanding of the global ocean cycling of carbon and associated elements. The importance of benthicpelagic coupling has been widely recognized (Graf 1992) since the empirical model developed by Hargrave (1973) and the work of Rowe et al. (1975), Hinga et al. (1979), and Graf et al. (1982). Since the late 1970s, understanding of the processes of mineralization of organic matter in surficial sediments (the so-called diagenetic sequence, Froelich et al. 1979) has led to the development of several models, a domain primarily investigated by Berner (1980).
