Glaciers as a source of ancient and labile organic matter to the marine environment

Eran Hood (), Jason Fellman, Robert G. M. Spencer, Peter J. Hernes, Rick Edwards, David D’Amore and Durelle Scott
Additional contact information
Eran Hood: Environmental Science and Geography Program, University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau, Alaska 99801, USA
Jason Fellman: Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
Robert G. M. Spencer: Air and Water Resources, University of California Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA
Peter J. Hernes: Air and Water Resources, University of California Davis, Davis, California 95616, USA
Rick Edwards: Pacific Northwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Juneau, Alaska 99801, USA
David D’Amore: Pacific Northwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Juneau, Alaska 99801, USA
Durelle Scott: Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA

Nature, 2009, vol. 462, issue 7276, 1044-1047

Abstract: Glacier runoff as a carbon source Biogeochemical cycling along coastlines is influenced by the influx of terrestrial organic matter and nutrients from rivers. Coastal ecosystems are therefore sensitive to any alteration in the amount and reactivity of dissolved organic matter (DOM) delivered. The Gulf of Alaska drainage basin contains more than 10% of the mountain glaciers on Earth and its annual runoff is the second greatest discharge of freshwater into the Pacific Ocean. A survey of streamwater DOM content in samples from eleven coastal watersheds along the Gulf of Alaska during peak glacial runoff now shows that the bioavailability of DOM to marine microorganisms is significantly correlated with increasing age, in contrast to the norm in non-glacial rivers. The findings suggest that glacial runoff is a quantitatively important source of labile reduced carbon to marine ecosystems and that climatically driven changes in glacier volume could alter the age, quantity and reactivity of DOM entering coastal oceans.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08580 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:462:y:2009:i:7276:d:10.1038_nature08580

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature08580

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().