Detailed dissolved organic matter composition for different permafrost types across the western Canadian Arctic ...

• Main Authors: Tank, Suzanne, MacDonald, Erin, Froese, Duane, Hutchins, Ryan, Kokelj, Steve
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Canadian Cryospheric Information Network 2020
• Subjects: Inuvik; Northwest Territories; permafrost; Tuktoyaktuk; Yukon
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.21963/13187; https://www.polardata.ca/pdcsearch/?doi_id=13187

Organic matter, upon dissolution into the aqueous state as dissolved organic matter (DOM), can undergo mineralization by microbes. There has been increasing effort to characterize DOM released from thawing permafrost because it may perpetuate a permafrost carbon feedback. Permafrost-derived DOM often has a composition that can be highly susceptible to mineralization by microbes, but most studies to date that characterize permafrost-derived DOM have been limited to select regions, and tend to focus on a single type of permafrost that reflects a particular deposit type. Importantly, diversity in permafrost history of formation and thaw modification processes have led to spatial and stratigraphic variability, but our understanding of variation in the composition of DOM derived from differing permafrost types (end-members) is poor. Here, we use Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) to characterize DOM composition derived from a series of permafrost end-member types that are ... : Borehole sites were initially selected by the Government of Northwest Territories to assess ground conditions prior to building a road, the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH). The borehole samples presented the opportunity to quantify the geochemical and geotechnical characteristics and variability of the substrate, which could then be entered into the Northwest Territories Geotechnical Database. In collaboration with scientists at the Northwest Territories Geological Survey, and other scientists at the University of Alberta, we sought to further expand the geochemical characterization by completing a detailed compositional analysis for leachates derived from different permafrost types. The compositional analyses of the leachates were completed using a combination of ITH borehole sample material, collected in the winter of 2017, as well as more shallow samples from the same sites, collected in the summer of 2018. Additionally, samples were collected from one site in the Klondike region, Yukon. The specific ...