Carbon, nitrogen and radiocarbon data from permafrost cores of two small Arctic river deltas in northern Alaska

• Main Authors: Fuchs, Matthias, Grosse, Guido, Jones, Benjamin M, Strauss, Jens, Baughman, Carson A, Walker, Donald A
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2018
• Subjects: AWI_PerDyn; Permafrost Research (Periglacial Dynamics) @ AWI; PETA-CARB; Rapid Permafrost Thaw in a Warming Arctic and Impacts on the Soil Organic Carbon Pool; Arctic; Fuchs; Peta; Alfred Wegener Institute; permafrost; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.890883; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.890883

This data set describes the soil core and sample characteristics from the Ikpikpuk and Fish Creek river delta on the Arctic Coastal Plain in northern Alaska. The collection of the permafrost soil cores and the analysis of the samples are described in Fuchs et al. (2018). Sedimentary and geochemical characteristics of two small permafrost-dominated Arctic river deltas in northern Alaska. This data compilation consists of two data set. The first data set describes the properties of the collected permafrost soil cores from the Ikpikpuk river (IKP) and Fish Creek river (FCR) delta. This includes the coordinates of the nine coring locations, the field measurements of the active- and organic layer thickness at the coring locations, and the length of the collected permafrost core. In addition, soil organic carbon and soil nitrogen stocks and densities derived from the laboratory analyses for the reference depths 0-30 cm, 0-100 cm, 0-150 cm and 0-200 cm are presented in kg C m-2 and in kg C m-3. The second data set provides the raw laboratory data for all the samples of the nine collected permafrost cores in the Ikpikpuk and Fish Creek River Delta. All laboratory analyzes were carried out at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam. The third data set presents the results from the radiocarbon dating of chosen samples from five different permafrost cores. This includes the AMS radiocarbon date and the calibrated age of a sample. In addition, the sediment and organic carbon accumulation rates for the dated samples are included. This data set allows to calculate the total carbon and nitrogen storage in two small Arctic river deltas (IKP and FCR) for the first two meter of soil and enlarges the available permafrost cores for Arctic river delta deposits.