Bounding cross-shelf transport time and degradation in Siberian-Arctic land-ocean carbon transfer

Nature Communications
Lisa BröderO Gustafsson

Abstract

The burial of terrestrial organic carbon (terrOC) in marine sediments contributes to the regulation of atmospheric CO2 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.

References

Mar 31, 2012·Annual Review of Marine Science·Neal E Blair, Robert C Aller
Dec 7, 2013·Nature·James E BauerPierre A G Regnier
Jan 9, 2015·Environmental Science & Technology·August AnderssonÖrjan Gustafsson
Apr 10, 2015·Nature·E A G SchuurJ E Vonk
May 15, 2015·Nature·Valier GalyTimothy Eglinton
Aug 8, 2015·Nature·Robert G HiltonDamien Calmels
Nov 30, 2016·Nature Communications·T TesiÖ Gustafsson
Jun 24, 2017·Nature Communications·Natalia ShakhovaDenis Chernykh

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Citations

May 8, 2019·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Birgit WildÖrjan Gustafsson
Apr 4, 2020·Nature Communications·Joshua F DeanA Johannes Dolman
Oct 2, 2020·Geophysical Research Letters·Dirk JongJorien E Vonk
Apr 23, 2019·Global Biogeochemical Cycles·Jannik MartensÖrjan Gustafsson
Oct 1, 2021·The Science of the Total Environment·Junyu DongJian Liu
Oct 11, 2021·Ambio·Christian MärzStephen Widdicombe

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
column chromatography

Software Mentioned

NOSAMS
Matlab
ArcGIS
pcGC

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