Bounding cross-shelf transport time and degradation in Siberian-Arctic land-ocean carbon transfer

Lisa Bröder (), Tommaso Tesi, August Andersson, Igor Semiletov and Örjan Gustafsson ()
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Lisa Bröder: Stockholm University
Tommaso Tesi: Stockholm University
August Andersson: Stockholm University
Igor Semiletov: University Alaska Fairbanks
Örjan Gustafsson: Stockholm University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract 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.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03192-1

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