Arctic-boreal lakes of interior Alaska dominated by contemporary carbon
Northern high-latitude lakes are critical sites for carbon processing and serve as potential conduits for the emission of permafrost-derived carbon and greenhouse gases. However, the fate and emission pathways of permafrost carbon in these systems remain uncertain. Here, we used the natural abundanc...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2023-01-01
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Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0993 |
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author | Fenix Garcia-Tigreros Clayton D Elder Martin R Kurek Benjamin L Miller Xiaomei Xu Kimberly P Wickland Claudia I Czimczik Mark M Dornblaser Robert G Striegl Ethan D Kyzivat Laurence C Smith Robert G M Spencer Charles E Miller David E Butman |
author_facet | Fenix Garcia-Tigreros Clayton D Elder Martin R Kurek Benjamin L Miller Xiaomei Xu Kimberly P Wickland Claudia I Czimczik Mark M Dornblaser Robert G Striegl Ethan D Kyzivat Laurence C Smith Robert G M Spencer Charles E Miller David E Butman |
author_sort | Fenix Garcia-Tigreros |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Northern high-latitude lakes are critical sites for carbon processing and serve as potential conduits for the emission of permafrost-derived carbon and greenhouse gases. However, the fate and emission pathways of permafrost carbon in these systems remain uncertain. Here, we used the natural abundance of radiocarbon to identify and trace the predominant sources of methane, carbon dioxide, dissolved inorganic and organic carbon in nine lakes within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in interior Alaska, a discontinuous permafrost region with high landscape heterogeneity and susceptibility to climate, permafrost, and hydrological changes. We find that although Yukon Flats lakes primarily process young carbon (modern to 1290 ± 60 years before present), permafrost-derived carbon is present in some of the sampled lakes and contributes, at most, 30 ± 10% of the dissolved carbon in lake surface waters. Apportionment of young carbon and legacy carbon (carbon with radiocarbon age ⩾5000 years before present) is decoupled among the dissolved inorganic and organic carbon species, with methane showing a stronger legacy signature. Our observations suggest that permafrost-thaw-related transport of carbon through Yukon Flats lacustrine ecosystems and into the atmosphere is small, and likely regulated by surficial sediments, permafrost distribution, wildfire occurrence, or masked by contemporary carbon processes. The heterogeneity of lakes across our study area and northern landscapes more broadly cautions against using any one region (e.g. Yedoma permafrost lakes) to upscale their contribution across the pan-Arctic. |
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id | doaj.art-a7bc94d6cd3f4760b2f9f6ce67ed35f3 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1748-9326 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-11T07:12:28Z |
publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
publisher | IOP Publishing |
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series | Environmental Research Letters |
spelling | doaj.art-a7bc94d6cd3f4760b2f9f6ce67ed35f32023-11-17T08:30:53ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262023-01-01181212402410.1088/1748-9326/ad0993Arctic-boreal lakes of interior Alaska dominated by contemporary carbonFenix Garcia-Tigreros0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8694-9046Clayton D Elder1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9831-2106Martin R Kurek2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6904-5253Benjamin L Miller3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8579-9621Xiaomei Xu4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3678-2748Kimberly P Wickland5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6400-0590Claudia I Czimczik6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8251-6603Mark M Dornblaser7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6298-3757Robert G Striegl8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8251-4659Ethan D Kyzivat9https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4748-2938Laurence C Smith10https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6866-5904Robert G M Spencer11https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0777-0748Charles E Miller12https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9380-4838David E Butman13https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3520-7426Department of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, United States of America; Now at Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island , Narragansett, RI, United States of AmericaJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University , Tallahassee, FL, United States of America; National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Geochemistry Group , Tallahassee, FL, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Earth System Sciences, University of California , Irvine, CA, United States of AmericaU.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Mission Area , Boulder, CO, United States of AmericaDepartment of Earth System Sciences, University of California , Irvine, CA, United States of AmericaU.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Mission Area , Boulder, CO, United States of AmericaU.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Mission Area , Boulder, CO, United States of AmericaDepartment of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences and Institute at Brown for Environment & Society, Brown University , Providence, RI, United States of AmericaDepartment of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences and Institute at Brown for Environment & Society, Brown University , Providence, RI, United States of AmericaDepartment of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University , Tallahassee, FL, United States of America; National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Geochemistry Group , Tallahassee, FL, United States of AmericaJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, United States of America; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaNorthern high-latitude lakes are critical sites for carbon processing and serve as potential conduits for the emission of permafrost-derived carbon and greenhouse gases. However, the fate and emission pathways of permafrost carbon in these systems remain uncertain. Here, we used the natural abundance of radiocarbon to identify and trace the predominant sources of methane, carbon dioxide, dissolved inorganic and organic carbon in nine lakes within the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge in interior Alaska, a discontinuous permafrost region with high landscape heterogeneity and susceptibility to climate, permafrost, and hydrological changes. We find that although Yukon Flats lakes primarily process young carbon (modern to 1290 ± 60 years before present), permafrost-derived carbon is present in some of the sampled lakes and contributes, at most, 30 ± 10% of the dissolved carbon in lake surface waters. Apportionment of young carbon and legacy carbon (carbon with radiocarbon age ⩾5000 years before present) is decoupled among the dissolved inorganic and organic carbon species, with methane showing a stronger legacy signature. Our observations suggest that permafrost-thaw-related transport of carbon through Yukon Flats lacustrine ecosystems and into the atmosphere is small, and likely regulated by surficial sediments, permafrost distribution, wildfire occurrence, or masked by contemporary carbon processes. The heterogeneity of lakes across our study area and northern landscapes more broadly cautions against using any one region (e.g. Yedoma permafrost lakes) to upscale their contribution across the pan-Arctic.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0993Arctic-boreal lakesradiocarbonpermafrostAlaskagreenhouse gases |
spellingShingle | Fenix Garcia-Tigreros Clayton D Elder Martin R Kurek Benjamin L Miller Xiaomei Xu Kimberly P Wickland Claudia I Czimczik Mark M Dornblaser Robert G Striegl Ethan D Kyzivat Laurence C Smith Robert G M Spencer Charles E Miller David E Butman Arctic-boreal lakes of interior Alaska dominated by contemporary carbon Environmental Research Letters Arctic-boreal lakes radiocarbon permafrost Alaska greenhouse gases |
title | Arctic-boreal lakes of interior Alaska dominated by contemporary carbon |
title_full | Arctic-boreal lakes of interior Alaska dominated by contemporary carbon |
title_fullStr | Arctic-boreal lakes of interior Alaska dominated by contemporary carbon |
title_full_unstemmed | Arctic-boreal lakes of interior Alaska dominated by contemporary carbon |
title_short | Arctic-boreal lakes of interior Alaska dominated by contemporary carbon |
title_sort | arctic boreal lakes of interior alaska dominated by contemporary carbon |
topic | Arctic-boreal lakes radiocarbon permafrost Alaska greenhouse gases |
url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad0993 |
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