East Siberian Arctic inland waters emit mostly contemporary carbon

[en] 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.

Research Center/Unit :

FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège

Disciplines :

Aquatic sciences & oceanology

Author, co-author :

Dean, Joshua F.; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Meisel, Ove H.; Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Martyn Rosco, Mélanie

Marchesini, Luca Belelli

Garnett, Mark H.

Lenderink, Henk

van Logtestijn, Richardus

Borges, Alberto ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Chemical Oceanography Unit (AGO)

Bouillon, Steven

Lambert, Thibault

More authors (8 more)

Language :

English

Title :

East Siberian Arctic inland waters emit mostly contemporary carbon

Publication date :

02 April 2020

Journal title :

Nature Communications

eISSN :

2041-1723

Publisher :

Nature Publishing Group, United Kingdom

Volume :

Issue :

2020

Pages :

1-10

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15511-6

Funders :

F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique

Available on ORBi :

since 02 April 2020

Statistics

Number of views

132 (11 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

95 (5 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

OpenAlex citations

121

Bibliography

Strauss, J. et al. Deep Yedoma permafrost: a synthesis of depositional characteristics and carbon vulnerability. Earth-Sci. Rev. 172, 75–86 (2017).
Vonk, J. E. et al. Reviews and syntheses: effects of permafrost thaw on Arctic aquatic ecosystems. Biogeosciences 12, 7129–7167 (2015).
Box, J. E. et al. Key indicators of Arctic climate change: 1971–2017. Environ. Res. Lett. 14, 045010 (2019).
Turetsky, M. R. et al. Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release. Nature 569, 32–34 (2019).
Raymond, P. A. et al. Flux and age of dissolved organic carbon exported to the Arctic Ocean: a carbon isotopic study of the five largest arctic rivers. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 21, GB4011 (2007).
Elder, C. D. et al. Greenhouse gas emissions from diverse Arctic Alaskan lakes are dominated by young carbon. Nat. Clim. Change 8, 166–171 (2018).
Dean, J. F. et al. Abundant pre-industrial carbon detected in Canadian Arctic headwaters: implications for the permafrost carbon feedback. Environ. Res. Lett. 13, 034024 (2018).
Phoenix, G. K. & Bjerke, J. W. Arctic browning: extreme events and trends reversing arctic greening. Glob. Chang. Biol. 22, 2960–2962 (2016).
Xu, L. et al. Temperature and vegetation seasonality diminishment over northern lands. Nat. Clim. Change 3, 581–586 (2013).
Schuur, E. A. G. et al. Climate change and the permafrost carbon feedback. Nature 520, 171–179 (2015).
Dean, J. F. et al. Methane feedbacks to the global climate system in a warmer world. Rev. Geophys. 56, 207–250 (2018).
Mann, P. J. et al. Utilization of ancient permafrost carbon in headwaters of Arctic fluvial networks. Nat. Commun. 6, 7856 (2015).
Drake, T. W., Wickland, K. P., Spencer, R. G. M., McKnight, D. M. & Striegl, R. G. Ancient low–molecular-weight organic acids in permafrost fuel rapid carbon dioxide production upon thaw. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 112, 13946–13951 (2015).
Vonk, J. E. et al. High biolability of ancient permafrost carbon upon thaw. Geophys. Res. Lett. 40, 2689–2693 (2013).
Walter Anthony, K. et al. Methane emissions proportional to permafrost carbon thawed in Arctic lakes since the 1950s. Nat. Geosci. 9, 679–682 (2016).
Cooper, M. D. A. et al. Limited contribution of permafrost carbon to methane release from thawing peatlands. Nat. Clim. Change 7, 507–511 (2017).
Estop-Aragonés, C. et al. Limited release of previously-frozen C and increased new peat formation after thaw in permafrost peatlands. Soil Biol. Biochem. 118, 115–129 (2018).
Dyonisius, M. N. et al. Old carbon reservoirs were not important in the deglacial methane budget. Science 367, 907–910 (2020).
Elder, C. D. et al. Seasonal sources of whole‐lake CH4 and CO2 emissions from interior Alaskan Thermokarst Lakes. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosciences 124, 1209–1229 (2019).
Hicks Pries, C. E., Schuur, E. A. G. & Crummer, K. G. Thawing permafrost increases old soil and autotrophic respiration in tundra: partitioning ecosystem respiration using δ13C and ∆14C. Glob. Chang. Biol. 19, 649–661 (2013).
van Huissteden, J. et al. Methane emissions from permafrost thaw lakes limited by lake drainage. Nat. Clim. Change 1, 119–123 (2011).
Weiss, N. et al. Thermokarst dynamics and soil organic matter characteristics controlling initial carbon release from permafrost soils in the Siberian Yedoma region. Sediment. Geol. 340, 38–48 (2016).
Muster, S. et al. Size distributions of Arctic waterbodies reveal consistent relations in their statistical moments in space and time. Front. Earth Sci. 7, 5 (2019).
Whiticar, M. J. Carbon and hydrogen isotope systematics of bacterial formation and oxidation of methane. Chem. Geol. 161, 291–314 (1999).
Marwick, T. R. et al. The age of river-transported carbon: a global perspective. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 29, 122–137 (2015).
Drake, T. W. et al. The ephemeral signature of permafrost carbon in an Arctic fluvial network. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci. 123, 1475–1485 (2018).
Evans, C. D. et al. Contrasting vulnerability of drained tropical and high-latitude peatlands to fluvial loss of stored carbon. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 28, 1215–1234 (2014).
Parnell, A. C. et al. Bayesian stable isotope mixing models. Environmetrics 24, 387–399 (2013).
Waldron, S. et al. C mobilisation in disturbed tropical peat swamps: old DOC can fuel the fluvial efflux of old carbon dioxide, but site recovery can occur. Sci. Rep. 9, 11429 (2019).
Lambert, T., Bouillon, S., Darchambeau, F., Massicotte, P. & Borges, A. V. Shift in the chemical composition of dissolved organic matter in the Congo River network. Biogeosciences 13, 5405–5420 (2016).
Cory, R. M. & Kling, G. W. Interactions between sunlight and microorganisms influence dissolved organic matter degradation along the aquatic continuum. Limnol. Oceanogr. Lett. 3, 102–116 (2018).
Campeau, A. et al. Current forest carbon fixation fuels stream CO2 emissions. Nat. Commun. 10, 1876 (2019).
Dean, J. F. et al. Biogeochemistry of “pristine” freshwater stream and lake systems in the western Canadian Arctic. Biogeochemistry 130, 191–213 (2016).
Cory, R. M., Ward, C. P., Crump, B. C. & Kling, G. W. Sunlight controls water column processing of carbon in arctic fresh waters. Science 345, 925–928 (2014).
Stubbins, A. et al. Low photolability of yedoma permafrost dissolved organic carbon. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci. 122, 200–211 (2017).
Kling, G. W., Kipphut, G. W. & Miller, M. C. Arctic lakes and streams as gas conduits to the atmosphere: implications for tundra carbon budgets. Science 251, 298–301 (1991).
Crawford, J. T., Striegl, R. G., Wickland, K. P., Dornblaser, M. M. & Stanley, E. H. Emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from a headwater stream network of interior Alaska. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosci. 118, 482–494 (2013).
Striegl, R. G., Dornblaser, M. M., McDonald, C. P., Rover, J. R. & Stets, E. G. Carbon dioxide and methane emissions from the Yukon River system. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 26, GB0E05 (2012).
Bouchard, F. et al. Modern to millennium-old greenhouse gases emitted from ponds and lakes of the Eastern Canadian Arctic (Bylot Island, Nunavut). Biogeosciences 12, 7279–7298 (2015).
Wik, M., Varner, R. K., Anthony, K. W., MacIntyre, S. & Bastviken, D. Climate-sensitive northern lakes and ponds are critical components of methane release. Nat. Geosci. 9, 99–105 (2016).
Bogard, M. J. et al. Negligible cycling of terrestrial carbon in many lakes of the arid circumpolar landscape. Nat. Geosci. 12, 180–185 (2019).
Hilton, R. G. et al. Erosion of organic carbon in the Arctic as a geological carbon dioxide sink. Nature 524, 84–87 (2015).
Liljedahl, A. K. et al. Pan-Arctic ice-wedge degradation in warming permafrost and its influence on tundra hydrology. Nat. Geosci. 9, 312–318 (2016).
Parmentier, F. J. W. et al. Spatial and temporal dynamics in eddy covariance observations of methane fluxes at a tundra site in northeastern Siberia. J. Geophys. Res Biogeosciences 116, 1–14 (2011).
Schaefer, H. et al. A 21st-century shift from fossil-fuel to biogenic methane emissions indicated by 13CH4. Science 352, 80–84 (2016).
Moran, M. A., Sheldon, W. M. & Zepp, R. G. Carbon loss and optical property changes during long-term photochemical and biological degradation of estuarine dissolved organic matter. Limnol. Oceanogr. 45, 1254–1264 (2000).
Billett, M. F., Garnett, M. H. & Harvey, F. UK peatland streams release old carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and young dissolved organic carbon to rivers. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, L23401 (2007).
Walter Anthony, K. M., Anthony, P., Grosse, G. & Chanton, J. Geologic methane seeps along boundaries of Arctic permafrost thaw and melting glaciers. Nat. Geosci. 5, 419–426 (2012).
Budishchev, A. et al. Evaluation of a plot scale methane emission model at the ecosystem scale using eddy covariance observations and footprint modelling. Biogeosciences 11, 4651–4664 (2014).
Garnett, M. H., Billett, M. F. F., Gulliver, P. & Dean, J. F. A new field approach for the collection of samples for aquatic 14CO2 analysis using headspace equilibration and molecular sieve traps: the super headspace method. Ecohydrology 9, 1630–1638 (2016).
Dean, J. F., Billett, M. F., Murray, C. & Garnett, M. H. Ancient dissolved methane in inland waters revealed by a new collection method at low field concentrations for radiocarbon (14C) analysis. Water Res. 115, 236–244 (2017).
Gulliver, P., Waldron, S., Scott, E. M. & Bryant, C. L. The effect of storage on the radiocarbon, stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic signatures and concentrations of riverine DOM. Radiocarbon 52, 1113–1122 (2010).
Xu, S. et al. Capabilities of the new SUERC 5MV AMS facility for 14C dating. Radiocarbon 46, 59–64 (2004).
Stuiver, M. & Polach, H. A. Discussion reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19, 355–363 (1977).
Brass, M. & Röckmann, T. Continuous-flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry method for carbon and hydrogen isotope measurements on atmospheric methane. Atmos. Meas. Tech. 3, 1707–1721 (2010).
St-Jean, G. Automated quantitative and isotopic (13C) analysis of dissolved inorganic carbon and dissolved organic carbon in continuous-flow using a total organic carbon analyser. Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 17, 419–428 (2003).
Bouillon, S., Korntheuer, M., Baeyens, W. & Dehairs, F. A new automated setup for stable isotope analysis of dissolved organic carbon. Limnol. Oceanogr. Methods 4, 216–226 (2006).
Bröder, L., Tesi, T., Andersson, A., Semiletov, I. & Gustafsson, Ö. Bounding cross-shelf transport time and degradation in Siberian-Arctic land-ocean carbon transfer. Nat. Commun. 9, 806 (2018).
Borges, A. V. et al. Globally significant greenhouse-gas emissions from African inland waters. Nat. Geosci. 8, 637–642 (2015).
Cole, J. J. & Caraco, N. F. Atmospheric exchange of carbon dioxide in a low-wind oligotrophic lake measured by the addition of SF 6. Limnol. Oceanogr. 43, 647–656 (1998).
Holgerson, M. A. & Raymond, P. A. Large contribution to inland water CO2 and CH4 emissions from very small ponds. Nat. Geosci. 9, 222–226 (2016).
Aufdenkampe, A. K. et al. Riverine coupling of biogeochemical cycles between land, oceans, and atmosphere. Front. Ecol. Environ. 9, 53–60 (2011).
Aubinet, M. et al. Estimates of the annual net carbon and water exchange of forests: the EUROFLUX methodology. Adv. Ecol. Res. 30, 113–175 (1999).
Papale, D. et al. Towards a standardized processing of Net Ecosystem Exchange measured with eddy covariance technique: algorithms and uncertainty estimation. Biogeosciences 3, 571–583 (2006).