Erosion of organic carbon in the Arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink
International audience Soils of the northern high latitudes store carbon over millennial timescales (thousands of years) and contain approximately double the carbon stock of the atmosphere. Warming and associated permafrost thaw can expose soil organic carbon and result in mineralization and carbon...
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Online Access: | https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03579674 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14653 |
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ftccsdartic:oai:HAL:insu-03579674v1 2023-05-15T15:00:44+02:00 Erosion of organic carbon in the Arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink Hilton, Robert G. Galy, Valier Gaillardet, Jérôme Dellinger, Mathieu Bryant, Charlotte O'Regan, Matt Gröcke, Darren R. Coxall, Helen Bouchez, Julien Calmels, Damien Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Université de La Réunion (UR)-Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPG Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Interactions et dynamique des environnements de surface (IDES) Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) 2015 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03579674 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14653 en eng HAL CCSD Nature Publishing Group info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/nature14653 insu-03579674 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03579674 BIBCODE: 2015Natur.524.84H doi:10.1038/nature14653 ISSN: 0028-0836 EISSN: 1476-4687 Nature https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03579674 Nature, 2015, 524, pp.84-87. ⟨10.1038/nature14653⟩ [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2015 ftccsdartic https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14653 2023-03-19T05:20:02Z International audience Soils of the northern high latitudes store carbon over millennial timescales (thousands of years) and contain approximately double the carbon stock of the atmosphere. Warming and associated permafrost thaw can expose soil organic carbon and result in mineralization and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) release. However, some of this soil organic carbon may be eroded and transferred to rivers. If it escapes degradation during river transport and is buried in marine sediments, then it can contribute to a longer-term (more than ten thousand years), geological CO 2 sink. Despite this recognition, the erosional flux and fate of particulate organic carbon (POC) in large rivers at high latitudes remains poorly constrained. Here, we quantify the source of POC in the Mackenzie River, the main sediment supplier to the Arctic Ocean, and assess its flux and fate. We combine measurements of radiocarbon, stable carbon isotopes and element ratios to correct for rock-derived POC. Our samples reveal that the eroded biospheric POC has resided in the basin for millennia, with a mean radiocarbon age of 5,800 +/- 800 years, much older than the POC in large tropical rivers. From the measured biospheric POC content and variability in annual sediment yield, we calculate a biospheric POC flux of teragrams of carbon per year from the Mackenzie River, which is three times the CO 2 drawdown by silicate weathering in this basin. Offshore, we find evidence for efficient terrestrial organic carbon burial over the Holocene period, suggesting that erosion of organic carbon-rich, high-latitude soils may result in an important geological CO 2 sink. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Ocean Mackenzie river permafrost Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) Arctic Arctic Ocean Mackenzie River Nature 524 7563 84 87 |
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Open Polar |
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Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) |
op_collection_id |
ftccsdartic |
language |
English |
topic |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
spellingShingle |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] Hilton, Robert G. Galy, Valier Gaillardet, Jérôme Dellinger, Mathieu Bryant, Charlotte O'Regan, Matt Gröcke, Darren R. Coxall, Helen Bouchez, Julien Calmels, Damien Erosion of organic carbon in the Arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
topic_facet |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
description |
International audience Soils of the northern high latitudes store carbon over millennial timescales (thousands of years) and contain approximately double the carbon stock of the atmosphere. Warming and associated permafrost thaw can expose soil organic carbon and result in mineralization and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) release. However, some of this soil organic carbon may be eroded and transferred to rivers. If it escapes degradation during river transport and is buried in marine sediments, then it can contribute to a longer-term (more than ten thousand years), geological CO 2 sink. Despite this recognition, the erosional flux and fate of particulate organic carbon (POC) in large rivers at high latitudes remains poorly constrained. Here, we quantify the source of POC in the Mackenzie River, the main sediment supplier to the Arctic Ocean, and assess its flux and fate. We combine measurements of radiocarbon, stable carbon isotopes and element ratios to correct for rock-derived POC. Our samples reveal that the eroded biospheric POC has resided in the basin for millennia, with a mean radiocarbon age of 5,800 +/- 800 years, much older than the POC in large tropical rivers. From the measured biospheric POC content and variability in annual sediment yield, we calculate a biospheric POC flux of teragrams of carbon per year from the Mackenzie River, which is three times the CO 2 drawdown by silicate weathering in this basin. Offshore, we find evidence for efficient terrestrial organic carbon burial over the Holocene period, suggesting that erosion of organic carbon-rich, high-latitude soils may result in an important geological CO 2 sink. |
author2 |
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Université de La Réunion (UR)-Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPG Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Interactions et dynamique des environnements de surface (IDES) Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hilton, Robert G. Galy, Valier Gaillardet, Jérôme Dellinger, Mathieu Bryant, Charlotte O'Regan, Matt Gröcke, Darren R. Coxall, Helen Bouchez, Julien Calmels, Damien |
author_facet |
Hilton, Robert G. Galy, Valier Gaillardet, Jérôme Dellinger, Mathieu Bryant, Charlotte O'Regan, Matt Gröcke, Darren R. Coxall, Helen Bouchez, Julien Calmels, Damien |
author_sort |
Hilton, Robert G. |
title |
Erosion of organic carbon in the Arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
title_short |
Erosion of organic carbon in the Arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
title_full |
Erosion of organic carbon in the Arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
title_fullStr |
Erosion of organic carbon in the Arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
title_full_unstemmed |
Erosion of organic carbon in the Arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
title_sort |
erosion of organic carbon in the arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03579674 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14653 |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Mackenzie River |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Mackenzie River |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Mackenzie river permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Mackenzie river permafrost |
op_source |
ISSN: 0028-0836 EISSN: 1476-4687 Nature https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03579674 Nature, 2015, 524, pp.84-87. ⟨10.1038/nature14653⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/nature14653 insu-03579674 https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-03579674 BIBCODE: 2015Natur.524.84H doi:10.1038/nature14653 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14653 |
container_title |
Nature |
container_volume |
524 |
container_issue |
7563 |
container_start_page |
84 |
op_container_end_page |
87 |
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1766332805390794752 |