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Revealing biogeochemical signatures of Arctic landscapes with river chemistry.


ABSTRACT: Riverine fluxes of carbon and inorganic nutrients are increasing in virtually all large permafrost-affected rivers, indicating major shifts in Arctic landscapes. However, it is currently difficult to identify what is causing these changes in nutrient processing and flux because most long-term records of Arctic river chemistry are from small, headwater catchments draining <200 km2 or from large rivers draining >100,000 km2. The interactions of nutrient sources and sinks across these scales are what ultimately control solute flux to the Arctic Ocean. In this context, we performed spatially-distributed sampling of 120 subcatchments nested within three Arctic watersheds spanning alpine, tundra, and glacial-lake landscapes in Alaska. We found that the dominant spatial scales controlling organic carbon and major nutrient concentrations was 3-30 km2, indicating a continuum of diffuse and discrete sourcing and processing dynamics. These patterns were consistent seasonally, suggesting that relatively fine-scale landscape patches drive solute generation in this region of the Arctic. These network-scale empirical frameworks could guide and benchmark future Earth system models seeking to represent lateral and longitudinal solute transport in rapidly changing Arctic landscapes.

SUBMITTER: Shogren AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6733942 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Revealing biogeochemical signatures of Arctic landscapes with river chemistry.

Shogren Arial J AJ   Zarnetske Jay P JP   Zarnetske Jay P JP   Abbott Benjamin W BW   Iannucci Frances F   Frei Rebecca J RJ   Griffin Natasha A NA   Bowden William B WB  

Scientific reports 20190909 1


Riverine fluxes of carbon and inorganic nutrients are increasing in virtually all large permafrost-affected rivers, indicating major shifts in Arctic landscapes. However, it is currently difficult to identify what is causing these changes in nutrient processing and flux because most long-term records of Arctic river chemistry are from small, headwater catchments draining <200 km<sup>2</sup> or from large rivers draining >100,000 km<sup>2</sup>. The interactions of nutrient sources and sinks acro  ...[more]

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