| Summary: | The amount of organic carbon (OC) present in Siberian Arctic permafrost soils is estimated at twice the amount of carbon currently in the atmosphere. The shelf seas of the Arctic Ocean receive large amounts of this terrestrial OC from Eurasian Arctic rivers and from coastal erosion. Degradation of this land-derived material in the sea would result in the production of dissolved carbon dioxide and may then add to the atmospheric carbon dioxide reservoir. Observations from the Siberian Arctic suggest that transfer of carbon from land to the marine environment is accelerating. However, it is not clear how much of the transported OC is degraded and oxidized, nor how much is removed from the active carbon cycle by burial in marine sediment. Using bulk geochemical parameters, total OC, d13C and D14C isotope composition, and specific molecular markers of plant wax lipids and lignin phenols, the abundance and composition of OC was determined in both dissolved and particulate carrier phases: the colloidal OC (COC; part of the dissolved OC), particulate OC (POC), and sedimentary OC (SOC). Statistical modelling was used to quantify the relative contribution of OC sources to these phases. Terrestrial OC is derived from the seasonally thawing top layer of permafrost soil (topsoil OC) and frozen OC derived from beneath the active layer eroded at the coast, commonly identified as yedoma ice complex deposit OC (yedoma ICD-OC). These carbon pools are transported differently in the aquatic conduits. Topsoil OC was found in young DOC and POC, in the river water, and the shelf water column, suggesting long-distance transport of this fraction. The yedoma ICD-OC was found as old particulate OC that settles out rapidly to the underlying sediment and is laterally transported across the shelf, likely dispersed by bottom nepheloid layer transport or via ice rafting. These two modes of OC transport resulted in different degradation states of topsoil OC and yedoma ICD-OC. Terrestrial CuO oxidation derived biomarkers indicated a highly ...
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