Contrasts in dissolved, particulate and sedimentary organic carbon from the Kolyma River to the East Siberian Shelf ...

• Main Authors: Jong, Dirk, Bröder, Lisa, Tesi, Tommaso, Keskitalo, Kirsi H., Zimov, Nikita, Davydova, Anna, Pika, Philip, Haghipour, Negar, Eglinton, Timothy I., Vonk, Jorien E.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2022
• Subjects: Arctic; East Siberian Sea; East Siberian Shelf; Kolyma; kolyma river; permafrost
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000593091; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/593091

Arctic rivers will be increasingly affected by the hydrological and biogeochemical consequences of thawing permafrost. During transport, permafrost-derived organic carbon (OC) can either accumulate in floodplain and shelf sediments or be degraded into greenhouse gases prior to final burial. Thus, the net impact of permafrost OC on climate will ultimately depend on the interplay of complex processes that occur along the source-to-sink system. Here, we focused on the Kolyma River, the largest watershed completely underlain by continuous permafrost, and marine sediments of the East Siberian Sea as a transect to investigate the fate of permafrost OC along the land-ocean continuum. Three pools of riverine OC were investigated for the Kolyma main stem and five of its tributaries: dissolved OC (DOC), suspended particulate OC (POC), and riverbed sediment OC (SOC) and compared to earlier findings in marine sediments. Carbon isotopes (δ13C, Δ14C), lignin phenol, and lipid biomarkers show a contrasting composition and ... : EGUsphere ...