Seasonal and hydrologic drivers of dissolved organic matter and nutrients in the upper Kuparuk River, Alaskan Arctic

• Main Authors: Amy Townsend-small, James W. Mcclell, R. Max, Holmes Bruce, J. Peterson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.471.747; http://darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:8080/bitstream/handle/1912/4413/Townsend-etal-BioG.pdf?sequence=1

Abstract As the planet warms, widespread changes in Arctic hydrology and biogeochemistry have been documented and these changes are expected to accel-erate in the future. Improved understanding of the behavior of water-borne constituents in Arctic rivers with varying hydrologic conditions, including seasonal variations in discharge–concentration relationships, will improve our ability to anticipate future changes in biogeochemical budgets due to changing hydrology. We studied the relationship between seasonal water discharge and dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen (DOC and DON) and nutrient concentrations in the upper Kuparuk River, Arctic Alaska. Fluxes of most constituents were highest during initial snowmelt runoff in spring, indicating that this historically