Greenhouse gas emissions from diverse Arctic Alaskan lakes are dominated by young carbon

Clayton D. Elder (), Xiaomei Xu, Jennifer Walker, Jordan L. Schnell, Kenneth M. Hinkel, Amy Townsend-Small, Christopher D. Arp, John W. Pohlman, Benjamin V. Gaglioti and Claudia I. Czimczik ()
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Clayton D. Elder: University of California
Xiaomei Xu: University of California
Jennifer Walker: University of California
Jordan L. Schnell: University of California
Kenneth M. Hinkel: University of Cincinnati
Amy Townsend-Small: University of Cincinnati
Christopher D. Arp: University of Alaska
John W. Pohlman: USGS Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center
Benjamin V. Gaglioti: Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
Claudia I. Czimczik: University of California

Nature Climate Change, 2018, vol. 8, issue 2, 166-171

Abstract: Abstract Climate-sensitive Arctic lakes have been identified as conduits for ancient permafrost-carbon (C) emissions and as such accelerate warming. However, the environmental factors that control emission pathways and their sources are unclear; this complicates upscaling, forecasting and climate-impact-assessment efforts. Here we show that current whole-lake CH4 and CO2 emissions from widespread lakes in Arctic Alaska primarily originate from organic matter fixed within the past 3–4 millennia (modern to 3,300 ± 70 years before the present), and not from Pleistocene permafrost C. Furthermore, almost 100% of the annual diffusive C flux is emitted as CO2. Although the lakes mostly processed younger C (89 ± 3% of total C emissions), minor contributions from ancient C sources were two times greater in fine-textured versus coarse-textured Pleistocene sediments, which emphasizes the importance of the underlying geological substrate in current and future emissions. This spatially extensive survey considered the environmental and temporal variability necessary to monitor and forecast the fate of ancient permafrost C as Arctic warming progresses.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41558-017-0066-9

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