Global patterns and drivers of dissolved organic matter across Earth systems: Insights from H/C and O/C ratios ...

• Main Authors: Ang, Hu, Lei, Han, Xiancai, Lu, Ganlin, Zhang, Jianjun, Wang
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2023
• Subjects: Tundra
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10067981; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10067981

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is ubiquitous and contains a complex pool of thousands of distinct molecules, and their chemical characteristics help us inform the fate of global carbon. Yet, a more holistic perspective of molecular characteristics of DOM and underlying mechanisms across Earth systems and climates remain understudied. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of the molecular characteristics of DOM using two abundance-weighted average indices, i.e., H/C and O/C ratios by compiling 2,995 samples from 317 studies covering the waters, land, plant, petroleum, and atmosphere systems, and the climatic regions from tropics to tundra. H/C ratios are lower on average in waters (H/C = 1.15 ± 0.005) and land (H/C = 1.20 ± 0.010) than the other systems, while their O/C ratios rank between plant and atmosphere. In the waters and land systems, the H/C ratios of DOM vary from the highest to the lowest in the habitats of land-to-ocean continuum generally as snow > glacier > marine ≥ freshwater/soil ...