East Siberian Arctic inland waters emit mostly contemporary carbon

peer reviewed Inland waters (rivers, lakes and ponds) are important conduits for the emission of terrestrial carbon in Arctic permafrost landscapes. These emissions are driven by turnover of contemporary terrestrial carbon and additional pre-aged (Holocene and late-Pleistocene) carbon released from...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Communications
Main Authors: Dean, Joshua F., Meisel, Ove H., Martyn Rosco, Mélanie, Marchesini, Luca Belelli, Garnett, Mark H., Lenderink, Henk, van Logtestijn, Richardus, Borges, Alberto, Bouillon, Steven, Lambert, Thibault, Röckmann, Thomas, Maximov, Trofim, Petrov, Roman, Karsanaev, Sergei, Aerts, Rien, van Huissteden, Jacobus, Vonk, Jorien, Dolman, A. Johannes
Other Authors: FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2020
Subjects:
methane
CH4
CO2
N2O
river
lake
Life sciences
Aquatic sciences & oceanology
Sciences du vivant
Sciences aquatiques & océanologie
permafrost
Siberia
Online Access:https://orbi.uliege.be/handle/2268/246376
https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/246376/1/s41467-020-15511-6.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15511-6
Description
Summary:peer reviewed Inland waters (rivers, lakes and ponds) are important conduits for the emission of terrestrial carbon in Arctic permafrost landscapes. These emissions are driven by turnover of contemporary terrestrial carbon and additional pre-aged (Holocene and late-Pleistocene) carbon released from thawing permafrost soils, but the magnitude of these source contributions to total inland water carbon fluxes remains unknown. Here we present unique simultaneous radiocarbon age measurements of inland water CO2, CH4 and dissolved and particulate organic carbon in northeast Siberia during summer. We show that >80% of total inland water carbon was contemporary in age, but pre-aged carbon contributed >50% at sites strongly affected by permafrost thaw. CO2 and CH4 were younger than dissolved and particulate organic carbon, suggesting emissions were primarily fuelled by contemporary carbon decomposition. Our findings reveal that inland water carbon emissions from permafrost landscapes may be more sensitive to changes in contemporary carbon turnover than the release of pre-aged carbon from thawing permafrost.

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