Bounding cross-shelf transport time and degradation in Siberian-Arctic land-ocean carbon transfer
The burial of terrestrial organic carbon (terrOC) in marine sediments contributes to the regulation of atmospheric CO 2 on geological timescales and may mitigate positive feedback to present-day climate warming. However, the fate of terrOC in marine settings is debated, with uncertainties regarding...
| Published in: | Nature Communications |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/e8e2095d-a454-404e-a99a-518eda012e44 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03192-1 https://hdl.handle.net/1871.1/e8e2095d-a454-404e-a99a-518eda012e44 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042552882&partnerID=8YFLogxK http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85042552882&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
| Summary: | The burial of terrestrial organic carbon (terrOC) in marine sediments contributes to the regulation of atmospheric CO 2 on geological timescales and may mitigate positive feedback to present-day climate warming. However, the fate of terrOC in marine settings is debated, with uncertainties regarding its degradation during transport. Here, we employ compound-specific radiocarbon analyses of terrestrial biomarkers to determine cross-shelf transport times. For the World's largest marginal sea, the East Siberian Arctic shelf, transport requires 3600 ± 300 years for the 600 km from the Lena River to the Laptev Sea shelf edge. TerrOC was reduced by ∼85% during transit resulting in a degradation rate constant of 2.4 ± 0.6 kyr -1 . Hence, terrOC degradation during cross-shelf transport constitutes a carbon source to the atmosphere over millennial time. For the contemporary carbon cycle on the other hand, slow terrOC degradation brings considerable attenuation of the decadal-centennial permafrost carbon-climate feedback caused by global warming. |
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