Detailed organic geochemical and carbon isotopic (δ13C and Δ14C) analyses are performed on permafrost deposits affected by coastal erosion (Herschel Island, Canadian Beaufort Sea) and adjacent marine sediments (Herschel Basin) to understand the fate of organic carbon in Arctic nearshore environments. We use an end‐member model based on the carbon isotopic composition of bulk organic matter to identify sources of organic carbon. Monte Carlo simulations are applied to quantify the contribution of coastal permafrost erosion to the sedimentary carbon budget. The models suggest that ~40% of all carbon released by local coastal permafrost erosion is efficiently trapped and sequestered in the nearshore zone. This highlights the importance of sedimentary traps in environments such as basins, lagoons, troughs, and canyons for the carbon sequestration in previously poorly investigated, nearshore areas.

Abstract. Lakes act as important sinks for inorganic and organic sediment components. However, investigations of sedimentary carbon budgets within glacial lakes are currently absent from Arctic Siberia. The aim of this paper is to provide the first reconstruction of accumulation rates, sediment and carbon budgets from a lacustrine sediment core from Lake Rauchuagytgyn, Chukotka (Arctic Siberia). We combined multiple sediment biogeochemical and sedimentological parameters from a radiocarbon-dated 6.5 m sediment core with lake basin hydroacoustic data to derive sediment stratigraphy, sediment volumes and infill budgets. Our results distinguished three principal sediment and carbon accumulation regimes that could be identified across all measured environmental proxies including early Marine Isotope Stage 2 (MIS2) (ca. 29–23.4 ka cal BP), mid-MIS2–early MIS1 (ca. 23.4–11.69 ka cal BP) and the Holocene (ca. 11.69–present). Estimated organic carbon accumulation rates (OCARs) were higher within Holocene sediments (average 3.53 g OC m−2 a−1) than Pleistocene sediments (average 1.08 g OC m−2 a−1) and are similar to those calculated for boreal lakes from Quebec and Finland and Lake Baikal but significantly lower than Siberian thermokarst lakes and Alberta glacial lakes. Using a bootstrapping approach, we estimated the total organic carbon pool to be 0.26 ± 0.02 Mt and a total sediment pool of 25.7 ± 1.71 Mt within a hydroacoustically derived sediment volume of ca. 32 990 557 m3. The total organic carbon pool is substantially smaller than Alaskan yedoma, thermokarst lake sediments and Alberta glacial lakes but shares similarities with Finnish boreal lakes. Temporal variability in sediment and carbon accumulation dynamics at Lake Rauchuagytgyn is controlled predominantly by palaeoclimate variation that regulates lake ice-cover dynamics and catchment glacial, fluvial and permafrost processes through time. These processes, in turn, affect catchment and within-lake primary productivity as well as catchment soil development. Spatial differences compared to other lake systems at a trans-regional scale likely relate to the high-latitude, mountainous location of Lake Rauchuagytgyn.

No abstract

Millennial-scale climate change history in eastern Siberia and relationships between diatom diversity, paleoclimate, and sediment-geochemical lake system trajectories are still poorly understood. This study investigates multi-proxy time series reaching back to the Late Pleistocene derived from radiocarbon dated Lake Bolshoe Toko sediment cores, southeastern Yakutia, Russia. We analyzed diatoms, elements (XRF), minerals (XRD), grain-size, organic carbon, and included chironomid analyses and published pollen-data for quantitative paleoclimate reconstruction. Changes in diatom species abundances reveal repeated episodes of thermal stratification indicated by shifts from euplanktonic Aulacoseira to Cyclotella species. Chironomid and pollen-inferred temperature reconstruction reveal that the main shift between these diatom species is related to the onset of Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) at 7.1 cal ka BP. Comparison to other paleoclimate records along a north-south transect through Yakutia shows that the HTM was delayed as far south as the Stanovoy mountains. Relationships between sediment-geochemistry, paleoclimate variability and diatom species richness (alpha diversity) was tested in a moving temporal offset approach to detect lead-lag relationships. Sediment-geochemical data, mainly uniform during the Holocene, revealed strongest positive or negative correlations ahead of species richness changes. Mean July air temperature (TJuly) reconstructions correlate with both Hill numbers and relative assemblage changes indicated by sample scores of multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) over the entire time series. We found that sediment organic carbon revealed distinct positive correlations, i.e., centennial-scale delay to increases in diatom effective richness (Hill numbers N0 and N2). We conclude that a lag of deposited organic carbon concentrations behind changes in diatom alpha diversity reveals that species richness can augment the production and thus sequestration of organic matter in comparable lake systems.

Abstract. Lakes act as important sinks for inorganic and organic sediment components. However, investigations of sedimentary carbon budgets within glacial lakes are currently absent from Arctic Siberia. The aim of this paper is to provide the first reconstruction of accumulation rates, sediment and carbon budgets from a lacustrine sediment core from Lake Rauchuagytgyn, Chukotka (Arctic Siberia). We combined multiple sediment-biogeochemical and sedimentological parameters from a radiocarbon-dated 6.5 m sediment core with lake basin hydroacoustic data to derive sediment stratigraphy, sediment volumes, and infill budgets. Our results distinguished three principal sediment and carbon accumulation regimes that could be identified across all measured environmental proxies including Early MIS2 (ca. 29–23.4 cal. ka BP), Mid-to-late MIS2 (ca. 23.4–11.5 cal. ka BP), and Holocene (ca. 11.5–present). Estimated organic carbon accumulation rates (OCARs) were higher within Holocene sediments (average 3.53 g OC m−2 a−1) than Pleistocene sediments (average 1.09 g OC m−2 a−1) and are similar to those calculated for boreal lakes from Quebec and Finland and Lake Baikal but significantly lower than Siberian thermokarst lakes and Alberta glacial lakes. Using a bootstrapping approach, we estimated the total organic carbon pool to 0.26 ± 0.02 Mt and a total sediment pool of 25.7 ± 1.71 Mt within a hydroacoustically derived sediment volume of ca. 32990557 m3. The total organic carbon pool is substantially smaller than Alaskan Yedoma, thermokarst lake sediments, and Alberta glacial lakes but shares similarities with Finnish boreal lakes. Temporal variability in sediment and carbon accumulation dynamics at Lake Rauchuagytgyn is controlled predominantly by palaeoclimate variation that regulates lake ice-cover dynamics and catchment glacial, fluvial and permafrost processes through time. These processes, in turn, affect catchment and within-lake primary productivity as well as catchment soil development. Spatial differences to other lake systems at a trans-regional scale likely relates to the high-latitude, mountainous location of Lake Rauchuagytgyn.

Abstract. Age–depth relationships are the key elements in paleoenvironmental studies to place proxy measurements into a temporal context. However, potential influencing factors of the available radiocarbon data and the associated modeling process can cause serious divergences of age–depth relationships from true chronologies, which is particularly challenging for paleolimnological studies in Arctic regions. This paper provides geoscientists with a tool-assisted approach to compare outputs from age–depth modeling systems and to strengthen the robustness of age–depth relationships. We primarily focused on the development of age determination data from a data collection of high-latitude lake systems (50 to 90∘ N, 55 sediment cores, and a total of 602 dating points). Our approach used five age–depth modeling systems (Bacon, Bchron, clam, hamstr, Undatable) that we linked through a multi-language Jupyter Notebook called LANDO (“Linked age and depth modeling”). Within LANDO we implemented a pipeline from data integration to model comparison to allow users to investigate the outputs of the modeling systems. In this paper, we focused on highlighting three different case studies: comparing multiple modeling systems for one sediment core with a continuously deposited succession of dating points (CS1), for one sediment core with scattered dating points (CS2), and for multiple sediment cores (CS3). For the first case study (CS1), we showed how we facilitate the output data from all modeling systems to create an ensemble age–depth model. In the special case of scattered dating points (CS2), we introduced an adapted method that uses independent proxy data to assess the performance of each modeling system in representing lithological changes. Based on this evaluation, we reproduced the characteristics of an existing age–depth model (Lake Ilirney, EN18208) without removing age determination data. For multiple sediment cores (CS3) we found that when considering the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, the main regime changes in sedimentation rates do not occur synchronously for all lakes. We linked this behavior to the uncertainty within the dating and modeling process, as well as the local variability in catchment settings affecting the accumulation rates of the sediment cores within the collection near the glacial–interglacial transition.

No abstract

<p>Increasing air and sea surface temperatures at high latitudes lead to accelerated thaw, destabilization, and erosion of perennially frozen soils (i.e., permafrost), which are often rich in organic carbon. Coastal erosion leads to an increased mobilization of organic carbon into the Arctic Ocean that can be converted into greenhouse gases and may therefore contribute to further warming. Carbon decomposition can be limited if organic matter is efficiently deposited on the seafloor, buried in marine sediments and thus removed from the short-term carbon cycle. Basins, canyons and troughs near the coastline can serve as sediment traps and potentially accommodate large quantities of organic carbon along the Arctic coast. Here we use biomarkers (source-specific molecules), stable carbon isotopes (δ<sup>13</sup>C) and radiocarbon (Δ<sup>14</sup>C) to identify the sources of organic carbon in the nearshore zone of the southern Canadian Beaufort Sea. We use an end-member model based on the carbon isotopic composition of bulk organic matter to identify sources of organic carbon. Monte Carlo simulations are applied to quantify the contribution of coastal permafrost erosion to the sedimentary carbon budget. The models suggest that 40% of all carbon released by coastal erosion is efficiently trapped and sequestered in the nearshore zone. We conclude that permafrost coastal erosion releases huge amounts of sediment and organic matter into the nearshore zone. Rapid burial removes large quantities of carbon from the carbon cycle in depositional settings.</p>