Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in Arctic ground ice, from northwest Canada, east Siberia, and Alaska ...

• Main Authors: Fritz, Michael, Opel, Thomas, Tanski, George, Herzschuh, Ulrike, Meyer, Hanno, Eulenburg, Antje, Lantuit, Hugues
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2015
• Subjects: ground ice; permafrost; Event label; Location of event; Latitude of event; Longitude of event; Ice type; Stratigraphy; Carbon, organic, dissolved; Carbon, inorganic, dissolved; δ18O; δ Deuterium; Deuterium excess; pH; Conductivity, electrolytic; Chloride; Sulfate; Nitrate; Bicarbonate ion; Calcium; Potassium; Magnesium; Sodium; Sampling by hand; HTCO, Shimadzu TOC-V; Calculated; Mass spectrometer Finnigan Delta-S/equilibration device; Ion chromatograph, Dionex Corporation, DX-320; Titration potentiometric, 794 Basic Titrino Metrohm; ICP-OES, Perkin-Elmer, Optima 3000XL; RU-Land_2007_Lena; AWI Arctic Land Expedition; Permafrost Research Periglacial Dynamics @ AWI AWI_PerDyn; Ice; wedge*; Alaska; Siberia
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.846074; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.846074

Thermal permafrost degradation and coastal erosion in the Arctic remobilize substantial amounts of organic carbon (OC) and nutrients which have accumulated in late Pleistocene and Holocene unconsolidated deposits. Permafrost vulnerability to thaw subsidence, collapsing coastlines and irreversible landscape change are largely due to the presence of large amounts of massive ground ice such as ice wedges. However, ground ice has not, until now, been considered to be a source of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and other elements which are important for ecosystems and carbon cycling. Here we show, using biogeochemical data from a large number of different ice bodies throughout the Arctic, that ice wedges have the greatest potential for DOC storage, with a maximum of 28.6 mg/L (mean: 9.6 mg/L). Variation in DOC concentration is positively correlated with and explained by the concentrations and relative amounts of typically terrestrial cations such as Mg2+ and K+. DOC sequestration ... : This study was undertaken in the Helmholtz Young Investigators Group 'COPER' - Coastal permafrost erosion, organic carbon and nutrient release in the Arctic nearshore zone (Helmholtz Association grant no. VH-NG-801 to Hugues Lantuit).http://www.awi.de/forschung/nachwuchsgruppen/coper.html ...