Ice content, DOC storage and annual permafrost eroding in the Arctic Ocean ...

• Main Authors: Tanski, George, Couture, Nicole, Lantuit, Hugues, Eulenburg, Antje, Fritz, Michael
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2016
• Subjects: Permafrost Research Periglacial Dynamics @ AWI AWI_PerDyn; Arctic Ocean; Ice; permafrost; Yukon
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.1594/pangaea.868914; https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.868914

Ice-rich permafrost coasts in the Arctic are highly sensitive to climate warming and erode at a pace that exceeds the global average. Permafrost coasts deliver vast amounts of organic carbon into the nearshore zone of the Arctic Ocean. Numbers on flux exist for particulate organic carbon (POC) and total or soil organic carbon (TOC, SOC). However, they do not exist for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which is known to be highly bioavailable. This study aims to estimate DOC stocks in coastal permafrost as well as the annual flux into the ocean. DOC concentrations in ground ice were analyzed along the ice-rich Yukon coast (YC) in the western Canadian Arctic. The annual DOC flux was estimated using available numbers for coast length, cliff height, annual erosion rate, and volumetric ice content in different stratigraphic horizons. Our results showed that DOC concentrations in ground ice range between 0.3 and 347.0 mg/l with an estimated stock of 13.6 ± 3.0 g/m**3 along the YC. An annual DOC flux of 54.9 ± 0.9 ... : Supplement to: Tanski, George; Couture, Nicole; Lantuit, Hugues; Eulenburg, Antje; Fritz, Michael (2016): Eroding permafrost coasts release low amounts of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from ground ice into the nearshore zone of the Arctic Ocean. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 30(7), 1054-1068 ...