Soil carbon and material fluxes across the eroding Alaska Beaufort Sea coastline

Ping, Chien‐Lu; Michaelson, G. J.; Guo, Laodong; Jorgenson, M. Torre; Kanevskiy, Mikhail; Shur, Yuri; Dou, Fugen; Liang, Jingjing

doi:10.1029/2010jg001588

Cited by 96 publications

(151 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(51 reference statements)

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“…On Muostakh Island, IC deposits are exposed along the east coast from below sea level up to the island's surface. Much of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas' coastlines are similarly ice-rich and can be expected to be subject to the same mechanisms of geomorphologic change in response to shifts in environmental drivers of coastal dynamics (Ping et al, 2011). Regionally, relevant shifts in the energy and water balances at the land-atmosphere interface (Boike et al, 2013), increases in Lena River discharge (Fedorova et al, 2015) and increases in the duration of open water and coastal erosion (Günther et al, 2015) have recently been observed, matching similar circumpolar observations (Barnhart et al, 2014).…”

Section: Study Areasupporting

confidence: 56%

Coastal dynamics and submarine permafrost in shallow water of the central Laptev Sea, East Siberia

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Coastal erosion and flooding transform terrestrial landscapes into marine environments. In the Arctic, these processes inundate terrestrial permafrost with seawater and create submarine permafrost. Permafrost begins to warm under marine conditions, which can destabilize the sea floor and may release greenhouse gases. We report on the transition of terrestrial to submarine permafrost at a site where the timing of inundation can be inferred from the rate of coastline retreat. On Muostakh Island in the central Laptev Sea, East Siberia, changes in annual coastline position have been measured for decades and vary highly spatially. We hypothesize that these rates are inversely related to the inclination of the upper surface of submarine ice-bonded permafrost (IBP) based on the consequent duration of inundation with increasing distance from the shoreline. We compared rapidly eroding and stable coastal sections of Muostakh Island and find permafrost-table inclinations, determined using direct current resistivity, of 1 and 5 %, respectively. Determinations of submarine IBP depth from a drilling transect in the early 1980s were compared to resistivity profiles from 2011. Based on borehole observations, the thickness of unfrozen sediment overlying the IBP increased from 0 to 14 m below sea level with increasing distance from the shoreline. The geoelectrical profiles showed thickening of the unfrozen sediment overlying ice-bonded permafrost over the 28 years since drilling took place. We use geoelectrical estimates of IBP depth to estimate permafrost degradation rates since inundation. Degradation rates decreased from over 0.4 m a −1 following inundation to around 0.1 m a −1 at the latest after 60 to 110 years and remained constant at this level as the duration of inundation increased to 250 years. We suggest that long-term rates are lower than these values, as the depth to the IBP increases and thermal and porewater solute concentration gradients over depth decrease. For the study region, recent increases in coastal erosion rate and changes in benthic temperature and salinity regimes are expected to affect the depth to submarine permafrost, leading to coastal regions with shallower IBP.

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Section: Study Areasupporting

confidence: 56%

Coastal dynamics and submarine permafrost in shallow water of the central Laptev Sea, East Siberia

et al. 2016

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“…Assuming a homogeneous vertical N stock distribution, the S N (100 cm) can be estimated at 1.5-2.5 kg m −2 which is distinctly higher than the estimates of S N (100 cm) in the Lena River Delta. The S N (100 cm) found in our study was in the range of the stock estimates of Jonasson et al (1999) and Ping et al (2011).…”

Section: Nitrogen Stocksmentioning

confidence: 48%

“…Jonasson et al (1999) reported a N stock for arctic Scandinavian heath of 0.115 kg m −2 and a depth of 15 cm, which theoretically can be recalculated for 100 cm depth amounting to 0.8 kg m −2 . For the eroding Alaska Beaufort Sea coastline, Ping et al (2011) reported an average total N storage of 1.4 kg m −2 . The N stocks published by Harden et al (2012) for 300 cm deep soil profiles of Gelisols were 4.6-7.5 kg m −2 .…”

Section: Nitrogen Stocksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks in soils of the Lena River Delta

et al. 2013

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The Lena River Delta, which is the largest delta in the Arctic, extends over an area of 32 000 km(2) and likely holds more than half of the entire soil organic carbon (SOC) mass stored in the seven major deltas in the northern permafrost regions. The geomorphic units of the Lena River Delta which were formed by true deltaic sedimentation processes are a Holocene river terrace and the active floodplains. Their mean SOC stocks for the upper 1m of soils were estimated at 29 kgm(-2) +/- 10 kgm(-2) and at 14 kgm(-2) +/- 7 kgm(-2), respectively. For the depth of 1 m, the total SOC pool of the Holocene river terrace was estimated at 121 Tg +/- 43 Tg, and the SOC pool of the active floodplains was estimated at 120 Tg +/- 66 Tg. The mass of SOC stored within the observed seasonally thawed active layer was estimated at about 127 Tg assuming an average maximum active layer depth of 50 cm. The SOC mass which is stored in the perennially frozen ground at the increment 50-100 cm soil depth, which is currently excluded from intense biogeochemical exchange with the atmosphere, was estimated at 113 Tg. The mean nitrogen (N) stocks for the upper 1m of soils were estimated at 1.2 kgm(-2) +/- 0.4 kgm(-2) for the Holocene river terrace and at 0.9 kgm(-2) +/- 0.4 kgm(-2) for the active floodplain levels, respectively. For the depth of 1 m, the total N pool of the river terrace was estimated at 4.8 Tg +/- 1.5 Tg, and the total N pool of the floodplains was estimated at 7.7 Tg +/- 3.6 Tg. Considering the projections for deepening of the seasonally thawed active layer up to 120 cm in the Lena River Delta region within the 21st century, these large carbon and nitrogen stocks could become increasingly available for decomposition and mineralization processes

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“…Gelisols and Histosols are affected by specific pedogenic processes that may cause C to be incorporated into the deeper layers of soils. These include cryoturbation (Turbels only), long-term accumulation of peat (Histels and Histosols only) and repeated deposition and stabilization of organicrich material (alluvium, proluvium, colluvium, lacustrine, marine or wind-blown deposits) in mineral syngenetic permafrost deposits (Ping et al, 1998;Tarnocai and Stolbovoy, 2006;Ping et al, 2011;Schirrmeister et al, 2011;Strauss et al, 2012). For permafrost-free mineral soils the main mechanisms for moving SOC into deeper soil layers are deep plant rooting, leaching of dissolved organic carbon, and burial of organic matter by repeated deposition.…”

Section: Data Set Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

A new data set for estimating organic carbon storage to 3 m depth in soils of the northern circumpolar permafrost region

Hugelius

Bockheim

Camill

et al. 2013

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

175

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Abstract. High-latitude terrestrial ecosystems are key components in the global carbon cycle. The Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database (NCSCD) was developed to quantify stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the northern circumpolar permafrost region (a total area of 18.7 × 10 6 km 2 ). The NCSCD is a geographical information system (GIS) data set that has been constructed using harmonized regional soil classification maps together with pedon data from the northern permafrost region. Previously, the NCSCD has been used to calculate SOC storage to the reference depths 0-30 cm and 0-100 cm (based on 1778 pedons). It has been shown that soils of the northern circumpolar permafrost region also contain significant quantities of SOC in the 100-300 cm depth range, but there has been no circumpolar compilation of Published by Copernicus Publications. G. Hugelius et al.:A new data set for estimating organic carbon storage pedon data to quantify this deeper SOC pool and there are no spatially distributed estimates of SOC storage below 100 cm depth in this region. Here we describe the synthesis of an updated pedon data set for SOC storage (kg C m −2 ) in deep soils of the northern circumpolar permafrost regions, with separate data sets for the 100-200 cm (524 pedons) and 200-300 cm (356 pedons) depth ranges. These pedons have been grouped into the North American and Eurasian sectors and the mean SOC storage for different soil taxa (subdivided into Gelisols including the sub-orders Histels, Turbels, Orthels, permafrost-free Histosols, and permafrost-free mineral soil orders) has been added to the updated NCSCDv2. The updated version of the data set is freely available online in different file formats and spatial resolutions that enable spatially explicit applications in GIS mapping and terrestrial ecosystem models. While this newly compiled data set adds to our knowledge of SOC in the 100-300 cm depth range, it also reveals that large uncertainties remain. Identified data gaps include spatial coverage of deep (> 100 cm) pedons in many regions as well as the spatial extent of areas with thin soils overlying bedrock and the quantity and distribution of massive ground ice. An open access data-portal for the pedon data set and the GIS-data sets is available online at http://bolin.su.se/data/ncscd/. The NCSCDv2 data set has a digital object identifier

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Soil carbon and material fluxes across the eroding Alaska Beaufort Sea coastline

Cited by 96 publications

References 33 publications

Coastal dynamics and submarine permafrost in shallow water of the central Laptev Sea, East Siberia

Coastal dynamics and submarine permafrost in shallow water of the central Laptev Sea, East Siberia

Organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks in soils of the Lena River Delta

A new data set for estimating organic carbon storage to 3 m depth in soils of the northern circumpolar permafrost region

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