East Siberian Arctic inland waters emit mostly contemporary carbon

Joshua F. Dean; Ove H. Meisel; Melanie Martyn Rosco; Luca Belelli Marchesini; Mark H. Garnett; Henk Lenderink; Richard van Logtestijn; Alberto V. Borges; Steven Bouillon; Thibault Lambert; Thomas Röckmann; Trofim Maximov; Roman Petrov; Sergei Karsanaev; Rien Aerts; Jacobus van Huissteden; Jorien E. Vonk; A. Johannes Dolman

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15511-6

East Siberian Arctic inland waters emit mostly contemporary carbon

Joshua F. Dean^*, Ove H. Meisel, Melanie Martyn Rosco, Luca Belelli Marchesini, Mark H. Garnett, Henk Lenderink, Richard van Logtestijn, Alberto V. Borges, Steven Bouillon, Thibault Lambert, Thomas Röckmann, Trofim Maximov, Roman Petrov, Sergei Karsanaev, Rien Aerts, Jacobus van Huissteden, Jorien E. Vonk, A. Johannes Dolman

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Inland waters (rivers, lakes and ponds) are important conduits for the emission of terrestrial carbon in Arctic permafrost landscapes. These emissions are driven by turnover of contemporary terrestrial carbon and additional pre-aged (Holocene and late-Pleistocene) carbon released from thawing permafrost soils, but the magnitude of these source contributions to total inland water carbon fluxes remains unknown. Here we present unique simultaneous radiocarbon age measurements of inland water CO₂, CH₄ and dissolved and particulate organic carbon in northeast Siberia during summer. We show that >80% of total inland water carbon was contemporary in age, but pre-aged carbon contributed >50% at sites strongly affected by permafrost thaw. CO₂ and CH₄ were younger than dissolved and particulate organic carbon, suggesting emissions were primarily fuelled by contemporary carbon decomposition. Our findings reveal that inland water carbon emissions from permafrost landscapes may be more sensitive to changes in contemporary carbon turnover than the release of pre-aged carbon from thawing permafrost.

Original language	English
Article number	1627
Pages (from-to)	1-10
Number of pages	10
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	11
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15511-6
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2020

Funding

This work was carried out under the program of the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (NESSC), financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), grant number: 024.002.001. L.B.M. acknowledges the support of the RUDN University program 5-100. A.V.B. is a senior research associate at the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS). We thank Caitlyn Witkowski of the University of Bristol for comments on draft versions of the paper.

Funders	Funder number
Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	024.002.001
Netherlands Earth System Science Centre
RUDN University

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-020-15511-6

Persistent URL (handle)

Persistent link

Cite this

Dean, J. F., Meisel, O. H., Martyn Rosco, M., Marchesini, L. B., Garnett, M. H., Lenderink, H., van Logtestijn, R., Borges, A. V., Bouillon, S., Lambert, T., Röckmann, T., Maximov, T., Petrov, R., Karsanaev, S., Aerts, R., van Huissteden, J., Vonk, J. E., & Dolman, A. J. (2020). East Siberian Arctic inland waters emit mostly contemporary carbon. Nature Communications, 11(1), 1-10. Article 1627. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15511-6

@article{475c0c48e697467fa265a46d87ddc6b9,

title = "East Siberian Arctic inland waters emit mostly contemporary carbon",

abstract = "Inland waters (rivers, lakes and ponds) are important conduits for the emission of terrestrial carbon in Arctic permafrost landscapes. These emissions are driven by turnover of contemporary terrestrial carbon and additional pre-aged (Holocene and late-Pleistocene) carbon released from thawing permafrost soils, but the magnitude of these source contributions to total inland water carbon fluxes remains unknown. Here we present unique simultaneous radiocarbon age measurements of inland water CO2, CH4 and dissolved and particulate organic carbon in northeast Siberia during summer. We show that >80% of total inland water carbon was contemporary in age, but pre-aged carbon contributed >50% at sites strongly affected by permafrost thaw. CO2 and CH4 were younger than dissolved and particulate organic carbon, suggesting emissions were primarily fuelled by contemporary carbon decomposition. Our findings reveal that inland water carbon emissions from permafrost landscapes may be more sensitive to changes in contemporary carbon turnover than the release of pre-aged carbon from thawing permafrost.",

author = "Dean, {Joshua F.} and Meisel, {Ove H.} and {Martyn Rosco}, Melanie and Marchesini, {Luca Belelli} and Garnett, {Mark H.} and Henk Lenderink and {van Logtestijn}, Richard and Borges, {Alberto V.} and Steven Bouillon and Thibault Lambert and Thomas R{\"o}ckmann and Trofim Maximov and Roman Petrov and Sergei Karsanaev and Rien Aerts and {van Huissteden}, Jacobus and Vonk, {Jorien E.} and Dolman, {A. Johannes}",

year = "2020",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-020-15511-6",

language = "English",

volume = "11",

pages = "1--10",

journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

publisher = "Nature Research",

number = "1",

}

Dean, JF, Meisel, OH, Martyn Rosco, M, Marchesini, LB, Garnett, MH, Lenderink, H, van Logtestijn, R, Borges, AV, Bouillon, S, Lambert, T, Röckmann, T, Maximov, T, Petrov, R, Karsanaev, S, Aerts, R , van Huissteden, J , Vonk, JE & Dolman, AJ 2020, 'East Siberian Arctic inland waters emit mostly contemporary carbon', Nature Communications, vol. 11, no. 1, 1627, pp. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15511-6

TY - JOUR

T1 - East Siberian Arctic inland waters emit mostly contemporary carbon

AU - Dean, Joshua F.

AU - Meisel, Ove H.

AU - Martyn Rosco, Melanie

AU - Marchesini, Luca Belelli

AU - Garnett, Mark H.

AU - Lenderink, Henk

AU - van Logtestijn, Richard

AU - Borges, Alberto V.

AU - Bouillon, Steven

AU - Lambert, Thibault

AU - Röckmann, Thomas

AU - Maximov, Trofim

AU - Petrov, Roman

AU - Karsanaev, Sergei

AU - Aerts, Rien

AU - van Huissteden, Jacobus

AU - Vonk, Jorien E.

AU - Dolman, A. Johannes

PY - 2020/12/1

Y1 - 2020/12/1

N2 - Inland waters (rivers, lakes and ponds) are important conduits for the emission of terrestrial carbon in Arctic permafrost landscapes. These emissions are driven by turnover of contemporary terrestrial carbon and additional pre-aged (Holocene and late-Pleistocene) carbon released from thawing permafrost soils, but the magnitude of these source contributions to total inland water carbon fluxes remains unknown. Here we present unique simultaneous radiocarbon age measurements of inland water CO2, CH4 and dissolved and particulate organic carbon in northeast Siberia during summer. We show that >80% of total inland water carbon was contemporary in age, but pre-aged carbon contributed >50% at sites strongly affected by permafrost thaw. CO2 and CH4 were younger than dissolved and particulate organic carbon, suggesting emissions were primarily fuelled by contemporary carbon decomposition. Our findings reveal that inland water carbon emissions from permafrost landscapes may be more sensitive to changes in contemporary carbon turnover than the release of pre-aged carbon from thawing permafrost.

AB - Inland waters (rivers, lakes and ponds) are important conduits for the emission of terrestrial carbon in Arctic permafrost landscapes. These emissions are driven by turnover of contemporary terrestrial carbon and additional pre-aged (Holocene and late-Pleistocene) carbon released from thawing permafrost soils, but the magnitude of these source contributions to total inland water carbon fluxes remains unknown. Here we present unique simultaneous radiocarbon age measurements of inland water CO2, CH4 and dissolved and particulate organic carbon in northeast Siberia during summer. We show that >80% of total inland water carbon was contemporary in age, but pre-aged carbon contributed >50% at sites strongly affected by permafrost thaw. CO2 and CH4 were younger than dissolved and particulate organic carbon, suggesting emissions were primarily fuelled by contemporary carbon decomposition. Our findings reveal that inland water carbon emissions from permafrost landscapes may be more sensitive to changes in contemporary carbon turnover than the release of pre-aged carbon from thawing permafrost.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85082891947&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85082891947&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-15511-6

DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-15511-6

M3 - Article

C2 - 32242076

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 11

SP - 1

EP - 10

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

IS - 1

M1 - 1627

ER -

East Siberian Arctic inland waters emit mostly contemporary carbon

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this