High biolability of ancient permafrost carbon upon thaw

Ongoing climate warming in the Arctic will thaw permafrost and remobilize substantial terrestrial organic carbon (OC) pools. Around a quarter of northern permafrost OC resides in Siberian Yedoma deposits, the oldest form of permafrost carbon. However, our understanding of the degradation and fate of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Vonk, Jorien E., Mann, Paul J., Davydov, Sergey, Davydova, Anna, Spencer, Robert G. M., Schade, John, Sobczak, William V., Zimov, Nikita, Zimov, Sergei, Bulygina, Ekaterina, Eglinton, Timothy I., Holmes, Robert M.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Yedoma
permafrost
dissolved organic carbon
Kolyma River
DISSOLVED ORGANIC-MATTER
OXYGEN ISOTOPES
ICE-WEDGES
SIBERIA
COASTAL
RELEASE
SOILS
Ice
kolyma river
wedge*
Siberia
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/14f77a98-bc45-449d-9f56-c09144f43798
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/14f77a98-bc45-449d-9f56-c09144f43798
https://doi.org/10.1002/grl.50348
https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/66757080/Vonk_et_al_2013_Geophysical_Research_Letters.pdf
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Summary:Ongoing climate warming in the Arctic will thaw permafrost and remobilize substantial terrestrial organic carbon (OC) pools. Around a quarter of northern permafrost OC resides in Siberian Yedoma deposits, the oldest form of permafrost carbon. However, our understanding of the degradation and fate of this ancient OC in coastal and fluvial environments still remains rudimentary. Here, we show that ancient dissolved OC (DOC, >21,000 (14)Cyears), the oldest DOC ever reported, is mobilized in stream waters draining Yedoma outcrops. Furthermore, this DOC is highly biolabile: 34 +/- 0.8% was lost during a 14 day incubation under dark, oxygenated conditions at ambient river temperatures. Mixtures of Yedoma stream DOC with mainstem river and ocean waters, mimicking in situ mixing processes, also showed high DOC losses (14 days; 17 +/- 0.8% to 33 +/- 1.0%). This suggests that this exceptionally old DOC is among the most biolabile DOC in any previously reported contemporary river or stream in the Arctic.

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