Sunlight controls water column processing of carbon in arctic fresh waters

Illuminating the pathway to destruction Arctic lakes are an important source of atmospheric CO 2 and therefore play a role in climate change. It is thus vital to know how the rapid Arctic warming will affect them. Cory et al. now show that light is the biggest culprit in the breakdown of carbon from...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Cory, Rose M., Ward, Collin P., Crump, Byron C., Kling, George W.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2014
Subjects:
Arctic
Tranvik
Climate change
permafrost
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1253119
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.1253119
Description
Summary:Illuminating the pathway to destruction Arctic lakes are an important source of atmospheric CO 2 and therefore play a role in climate change. It is thus vital to know how the rapid Arctic warming will affect them. Cory et al. now show that light is the biggest culprit in the breakdown of carbon from thawing permafrost soils (see the Perspective by Tranvik). This carbon then moves out into Arctic lakes and streams. Contrary to previous expectations, these photochemical processes cause much more destruction of the organic molecules in fresh water than bacterial respiration does. Science , this issue p. 925 see also p. 870

Similar Items