Erosion of organic carbon in the Artic as a geological carbon dioxide sink
International audience Soils of the northern high latitudes store carbon over millennial timescales (thousands of years) and contain approximately double the carbon stock of the atmosphere1, 2, 3. Warming and associated permafrost thaw can expose soil organic carbon and result in mineralization and...
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ftunivnantes:oai:HAL:hal-01492548v1 2023-05-15T15:12:41+02:00 Erosion of organic carbon in the Artic as a geological carbon dioxide sink Hilton, R.G. Galy, V. Gaillardet, J. Dellinger, M. Bryant, C. O'Regan, M. Grocke, D.R. Bouchez, Julien Calmels, D. Durham University Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Université de La Réunion (UR)-Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPG Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) NERC Radiocarbon Facility East Kilbride (NRCF) Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) University of Glasgow-University of Edinburgh-University of Glasgow-University of Edinburgh-Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Department of Geological Sciences Stockholm Stockholm University Department of Earth Sciences Durham Géosciences Paris Sud (GEOPS) Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) 2015 https://hal.science/hal-01492548 en eng HAL CCSD Nature Publishing Group hal-01492548 https://hal.science/hal-01492548 ISSN: 0028-0836 EISSN: 1476-4687 Nature https://hal.science/hal-01492548 Nature, 2015, pp.524(7563):84-U162 [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2015 ftunivnantes 2023-03-08T06:51:34Z International audience Soils of the northern high latitudes store carbon over millennial timescales (thousands of years) and contain approximately double the carbon stock of the atmosphere1, 2, 3. Warming and associated permafrost thaw can expose soil organic carbon and result in mineralization and carbon dioxide (CO2) release4, 5, 6. However, some of this soil organic carbon may be eroded and transferred to rivers7, 8, 9. If it escapes degradation during river transport and is buried in marine sediments, then it can contribute to a longer-term (more than ten thousand years), geological CO2 sink8, 9, 10. Despite this recognition, the erosional flux and fate of particulate organic carbon (POC) in large rivers at high latitudes remains poorly constrained. Here, we quantify the source of POC in the Mackenzie River, the main sediment supplier to the Arctic Ocean11, 12, and assess its flux and fate. We combine measurements of radiocarbon, stable carbon isotopes and element ratios to correct for rock-derived POC10, 13, 14. Our samples reveal that the eroded biospheric POC has resided in the basin for millennia, with a mean radiocarbon age of 5,800 ± 800 years, much older than the POC in large tropical rivers13, 14. From the measured biospheric POC content and variability in annual sediment yield15, we calculate a biospheric POC flux of teragrams of carbon per year from the Mackenzie River, which is three times the CO2 drawdown by silicate weathering in this basin16. Offshore, we find evidence for efficient terrestrial organic carbon burial over the Holocene period, suggesting that erosion of organic carbon-rich, high-latitude soils may result in an important geological CO2 sink. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Mackenzie river permafrost Université de Nantes: HAL-UNIV-NANTES Arctic Mackenzie River |
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Open Polar |
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Université de Nantes: HAL-UNIV-NANTES |
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ftunivnantes |
language |
English |
topic |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
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[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] Hilton, R.G. Galy, V. Gaillardet, J. Dellinger, M. Bryant, C. O'Regan, M. Grocke, D.R. Bouchez, Julien Calmels, D. Erosion of organic carbon in the Artic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
topic_facet |
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics] |
description |
International audience Soils of the northern high latitudes store carbon over millennial timescales (thousands of years) and contain approximately double the carbon stock of the atmosphere1, 2, 3. Warming and associated permafrost thaw can expose soil organic carbon and result in mineralization and carbon dioxide (CO2) release4, 5, 6. However, some of this soil organic carbon may be eroded and transferred to rivers7, 8, 9. If it escapes degradation during river transport and is buried in marine sediments, then it can contribute to a longer-term (more than ten thousand years), geological CO2 sink8, 9, 10. Despite this recognition, the erosional flux and fate of particulate organic carbon (POC) in large rivers at high latitudes remains poorly constrained. Here, we quantify the source of POC in the Mackenzie River, the main sediment supplier to the Arctic Ocean11, 12, and assess its flux and fate. We combine measurements of radiocarbon, stable carbon isotopes and element ratios to correct for rock-derived POC10, 13, 14. Our samples reveal that the eroded biospheric POC has resided in the basin for millennia, with a mean radiocarbon age of 5,800 ± 800 years, much older than the POC in large tropical rivers13, 14. From the measured biospheric POC content and variability in annual sediment yield15, we calculate a biospheric POC flux of teragrams of carbon per year from the Mackenzie River, which is three times the CO2 drawdown by silicate weathering in this basin16. Offshore, we find evidence for efficient terrestrial organic carbon burial over the Holocene period, suggesting that erosion of organic carbon-rich, high-latitude soils may result in an important geological CO2 sink. |
author2 |
Durham University Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Université de La Réunion (UR)-Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPG Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) NERC Radiocarbon Facility East Kilbride (NRCF) Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) University of Glasgow-University of Edinburgh-University of Glasgow-University of Edinburgh-Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Department of Geological Sciences Stockholm Stockholm University Department of Earth Sciences Durham Géosciences Paris Sud (GEOPS) Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11 (UP11)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hilton, R.G. Galy, V. Gaillardet, J. Dellinger, M. Bryant, C. O'Regan, M. Grocke, D.R. Bouchez, Julien Calmels, D. |
author_facet |
Hilton, R.G. Galy, V. Gaillardet, J. Dellinger, M. Bryant, C. O'Regan, M. Grocke, D.R. Bouchez, Julien Calmels, D. |
author_sort |
Hilton, R.G. |
title |
Erosion of organic carbon in the Artic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
title_short |
Erosion of organic carbon in the Artic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
title_full |
Erosion of organic carbon in the Artic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
title_fullStr |
Erosion of organic carbon in the Artic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
title_full_unstemmed |
Erosion of organic carbon in the Artic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
title_sort |
erosion of organic carbon in the artic as a geological carbon dioxide sink |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-01492548 |
geographic |
Arctic Mackenzie River |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Mackenzie River |
genre |
Arctic Mackenzie river permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic Mackenzie river permafrost |
op_source |
ISSN: 0028-0836 EISSN: 1476-4687 Nature https://hal.science/hal-01492548 Nature, 2015, pp.524(7563):84-U162 |
op_relation |
hal-01492548 https://hal.science/hal-01492548 |
_version_ |
1766343342572961792 |