Bounding cross-shelf transport time and degradation in Siberian-Arctic land-ocean carbon transfer
| Parent link: | Nature Communications Vol. 9, iss. 1.— 2018.— [806, 8 р.] |
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| Other Authors: | , , , , |
| Summary: | Title screen 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. |
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2018
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03192-1 |
| Format: | Electronic Book Chapter |
| KOHA link: | https://koha.lib.tpu.ru/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=666938 |