Groundwater as a major source of dissolved organic matter to Arctic coastal waters.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32198391.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-15250-8 and PMC identifier 7083844.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Groundwater is projected to become an increasing source of freshwater and nutrients to the Arctic Ocean as permafrost thaws, yet few studies have quantified groundwater inputs to Arctic coastal waters under contemporary conditions. New measurements along the Alaska Beaufort Sea coast show that dissolved organic carbon and nitrogen (DOC and DON) concentrations in supra-permafrost groundwater (SPGW) near the land-sea interface are up to two orders of magnitude higher than in rivers. This dissolved organic matter (DOM) is sourced from readily leachable organic matter in surface soils and deeper centuries-to millennia-old soils that extend into thawing permafrost. SPGW delivers approximately 400-2100 m<sup>3</sup> of freshwater, 14-71 kg of DOC, and 1-4 kg of DON to the coastal ocean per km of shoreline per day during late summer. These substantial fluxes are expected to increase as massive stocks of frozen organic matter in permafrost are liberated in a warming Arctic.