Soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada
Recent mobilisation of soil organic matter (SOM) in permafrost of the northern high latitudes is thought to have a significant impact on the carbon balance in the atmosphere. However, the environmental processes which influence SOM accumulation and remobilisation still need to be investigated more a...
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GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
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ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:38826 2023-05-15T15:12:11+02:00 Soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada Baltruschat, Stefan Fritz, Michael Obu, Jaroslav Lantuit, Hugues Hinderer, Matthias 2015-10 application/pdf https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/38826/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/38826/1/book_of_abstracts_geoberlin_2015.pdf http://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/escidoc:1314059/component/escidoc:1314718/Geoberlin_2015.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46093 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46093.d001 unknown GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/38826/1/book_of_abstracts_geoberlin_2015.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46093.d001 Baltruschat, S. , Fritz, M. orcid:0000-0003-4591-7325 , Obu, J. , Lantuit, H. orcid:0000-0003-1497-6760 and Hinderer, M. (2015) Soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada , GeoBerlin2015 - Dynamic Earth from Alfred Wegener to today and beyond. Annual Meeting of DGGV and DMG, Berlin, Germany, 4 October 2015 - 7 October 2015 . doi:10.2312/GFZ.LIS.2015.003 <https://doi.org/10.2312/GFZ.LIS.2015.003> , hdl:10013/epic.46093 EPIC3GeoBerlin2015 - Dynamic Earth from Alfred Wegener to today and beyond. Annual Meeting of DGGV and DMG, Berlin, Germany, 2015-10-04-2015-10-07Berlin, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences Conference notRev 2015 ftawi https://doi.org/10.2312/GFZ.LIS.2015.003 2021-12-24T15:40:45Z Recent mobilisation of soil organic matter (SOM) in permafrost of the northern high latitudes is thought to have a significant impact on the carbon balance in the atmosphere. However, the environmental processes which influence SOM accumulation and remobilisation still need to be investigated more accurately. This study investigates the quantity and quality of SOM on Herschel Island in the western Canadian Arctic in relation to various landscape characteristics. To reach this goal, soil moisture, total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) contents, stable carbon isotopes (∂¹³C) and TOC/TN ratios (C/N) were determined on 128 samples from twelve sediment cores reaching up to 250 cm depth. Drilling locations were chosen based on morphology, vegetation and soil properties and supported by satellite imagery and air photos. Seasonal thaw depths (active layer depths) correlate with ground disturbance and vegetation cover and lie between 20 and 100 cm. Well-preserved SOM is accumulated in the active layer and subjacent ice-rich permafrost of wet polygonal tundra. Uplands, hummocky tussock tundra and alluvial fans cover more than 50 % of the island and show heterogeneous SOM storage characteristics with considerable TOC contents being limited to the active layer. Disturbed areas with slope gradients greater than 6° show strong SOM degradation with low TOC contents throughout the active layer and permafrost strata. Linear regression and principal component analysis (PCA) shows that a decreasing SOM content is driven by increasing ground disturbance and reduced vegetation cover. Improved drainage decreases the preservation of SOM in the active layer. Future deepening of the active layer because of increasing temperatures and ground disturbance will remobilise SOM stored in ice-rich permafrost. This might increase carbon dioxide and methane emissions from permafrost landscapes. Conference Object Arctic Herschel Herschel Island Ice permafrost Tundra Yukon Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) Arctic Canada Herschel Island ENVELOPE(-139.089,-139.089,69.583,69.583) Yukon |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) |
op_collection_id |
ftawi |
language |
unknown |
description |
Recent mobilisation of soil organic matter (SOM) in permafrost of the northern high latitudes is thought to have a significant impact on the carbon balance in the atmosphere. However, the environmental processes which influence SOM accumulation and remobilisation still need to be investigated more accurately. This study investigates the quantity and quality of SOM on Herschel Island in the western Canadian Arctic in relation to various landscape characteristics. To reach this goal, soil moisture, total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN) contents, stable carbon isotopes (∂¹³C) and TOC/TN ratios (C/N) were determined on 128 samples from twelve sediment cores reaching up to 250 cm depth. Drilling locations were chosen based on morphology, vegetation and soil properties and supported by satellite imagery and air photos. Seasonal thaw depths (active layer depths) correlate with ground disturbance and vegetation cover and lie between 20 and 100 cm. Well-preserved SOM is accumulated in the active layer and subjacent ice-rich permafrost of wet polygonal tundra. Uplands, hummocky tussock tundra and alluvial fans cover more than 50 % of the island and show heterogeneous SOM storage characteristics with considerable TOC contents being limited to the active layer. Disturbed areas with slope gradients greater than 6° show strong SOM degradation with low TOC contents throughout the active layer and permafrost strata. Linear regression and principal component analysis (PCA) shows that a decreasing SOM content is driven by increasing ground disturbance and reduced vegetation cover. Improved drainage decreases the preservation of SOM in the active layer. Future deepening of the active layer because of increasing temperatures and ground disturbance will remobilise SOM stored in ice-rich permafrost. This might increase carbon dioxide and methane emissions from permafrost landscapes. |
format |
Conference Object |
author |
Baltruschat, Stefan Fritz, Michael Obu, Jaroslav Lantuit, Hugues Hinderer, Matthias |
spellingShingle |
Baltruschat, Stefan Fritz, Michael Obu, Jaroslav Lantuit, Hugues Hinderer, Matthias Soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada |
author_facet |
Baltruschat, Stefan Fritz, Michael Obu, Jaroslav Lantuit, Hugues Hinderer, Matthias |
author_sort |
Baltruschat, Stefan |
title |
Soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada |
title_short |
Soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada |
title_full |
Soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada |
title_fullStr |
Soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada |
title_sort |
soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on herschel island, yukon territory, canada |
publisher |
GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/38826/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/38826/1/book_of_abstracts_geoberlin_2015.pdf http://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/escidoc:1314059/component/escidoc:1314718/Geoberlin_2015.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46093 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46093.d001 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-139.089,-139.089,69.583,69.583) |
geographic |
Arctic Canada Herschel Island Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Canada Herschel Island Yukon |
genre |
Arctic Herschel Herschel Island Ice permafrost Tundra Yukon |
genre_facet |
Arctic Herschel Herschel Island Ice permafrost Tundra Yukon |
op_source |
EPIC3GeoBerlin2015 - Dynamic Earth from Alfred Wegener to today and beyond. Annual Meeting of DGGV and DMG, Berlin, Germany, 2015-10-04-2015-10-07Berlin, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences |
op_relation |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/38826/1/book_of_abstracts_geoberlin_2015.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.46093.d001 Baltruschat, S. , Fritz, M. orcid:0000-0003-4591-7325 , Obu, J. , Lantuit, H. orcid:0000-0003-1497-6760 and Hinderer, M. (2015) Soil organic matter characteristics in surficial permafrost sediments on Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada , GeoBerlin2015 - Dynamic Earth from Alfred Wegener to today and beyond. Annual Meeting of DGGV and DMG, Berlin, Germany, 4 October 2015 - 7 October 2015 . doi:10.2312/GFZ.LIS.2015.003 <https://doi.org/10.2312/GFZ.LIS.2015.003> , hdl:10013/epic.46093 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2312/GFZ.LIS.2015.003 |
_version_ |
1766342903114760192 |