Geography
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Lakes in permafrost regions are dynamic landscape components and play an important role for climate change feedbacks. Lake processes such as mineralization and flocculation of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), one of the main carbon fractions in lakes, contribute to the greenhouse effect and are part of the global carbon cycle. These processes are in the focus of climate research, but studies so far are limited to specific study regions. In our synthesis, we analyzed 2167 water samples from 1833 lakes across the Arctic in permafrost regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia to provide first pan-Arctic insights for linkages between DOC concentrations and the environment. Using published data and unpublished datasets from the author team, we report regional DOC differences linked to latitude, permafrost zones, ecoregions, geology, near-surface soil organic carbon contents, and ground ice classification of each lake region. The lake DOC concentrations in our dataset range from 0 to 1130mgL-1 (10.8mgL-1 median DOC concentration). Regarding the permafrost regions of our synthesis, we found median lake DOC concentrations of 12.4mgL-1 (Siberia), 12.3mgL-1 (Alaska), 10.3mgL-1 (Greenland), and 4.5mgL-1 (Canada). Our synthesis shows a significant relationship between lake DOC concentration and lake ecoregion. We found higher lake DOC concentrations at boreal permafrost sites compared to tundra sites. We found significantly higher DOC concentrations in lakes in regions with ice-rich syngenetic permafrost deposits (yedoma) compared to non-yedoma lakes and a weak but significant relationship between soil organic carbon content and lake DOC concentration as well as between ground ice content and lake DOC. Our pan-Arctic dataset shows that the DOC concentration of a lake depends on its environmental properties, especially on permafrost extent and ecoregion, as well as vegetation, which is the most important driver of lake DOC in this study. This new dataset will be fundamental to quantify a pan-Arctic lake DOC pool for estimations of the impact of lake DOC on the global carbon cycle and climate change.
Publication Title
Biogeosciences
Publication Date
2021
Volume
18
Issue
12
First Page
3917
Last Page
3936
ISSN
1726-4170
DOI
10.5194/bg-18-3917-2021
Keywords
arctic environment, concentration (composition), data set, dissolved organic carbon, lacustrine deposit, permafrost
Repository Citation
Stolpmann, Lydia; Coch, Caroline; Morgenstern, Anne; Boike, Julia; Fritz, Michael; Herzschuh, Ulrike; Stoof-Leichsenring, Kathleen; Dvornikov, Yury; Heim, Birgit; Lenz, Josefine; Larsen, Amy; Walter Anthony, Katey; Jones, Benjamin; Frey, Karen; and Grosse, Guido, "First pan-Arctic assessment of dissolved organic carbon in lakes of the permafrost region" (2021). Geography. 191.
https://commons.clarku.edu/faculty_geography/191
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.