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Bounding cross-shelf transport time and degradation in Siberian-Arctic land-ocean carbon transfer
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2018
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Source: Nat Commun. 2018; 9: 806.
[PDF-1.62 MB]
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Journal Title:Nature Communications
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NOAA Program & Office:
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Description: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.
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Source:Nat Commun. 2018; 9: 806.
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DOI:
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Pubmed ID:29476050
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC5824890
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Funding:
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Rights Information:CC BY
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Compliance:PMC
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