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 |
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Article number | 1627 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-10 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Nature Communications |
Volume | 11 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
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 |
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Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap | |
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | 024.002.001 |
Netherlands Earth System Science Centre | |
RUDN University |