Groundwater as a major source of dissolved organic matter to Arctic coastal waters

Groundwater is projected to become an increasing source of freshwater and nutrients to the Arctic Ocean as permafrost thaws, yet few studies have quantified groundwater inputs to Arctic coastal waters under contemporary conditions. New measurements along the Alaska Beaufort Sea coast show that disso...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature Communications
Main Authors: Connolly, Craig T., Cardenas, M. Bayani, Burkart, Greta A., Spencer, Robert G. M., McClelland, James W.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Subjects:
Article
Arctic
Arctic Ocean
Beaufort Sea
permafrost
Alaska
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7083844/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32198391
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15250-8
Description
Summary:Groundwater is projected to become an increasing source of freshwater and nutrients to the Arctic Ocean as permafrost thaws, yet few studies have quantified groundwater inputs to Arctic coastal waters under contemporary conditions. New measurements along the Alaska Beaufort Sea coast show that dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen (DOC and DON) concentrations in supra-permafrost groundwater (SPGW) near the land-sea interface are up to two orders of magnitude higher than in rivers. This dissolved organic matter (DOM) is sourced from readily leachable organic matter in surface soils and deeper centuries-to millennia-old soils that extend into thawing permafrost. SPGW delivers approximately 400–2100 m(3) of freshwater, 14–71 kg of DOC, and 1–4 kg of DON to the coastal ocean per km of shoreline per day during late summer. These substantial fluxes are expected to increase as massive stocks of frozen organic matter in permafrost are liberated in a warming Arctic.

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