Methane turnover and environmental change from Holocene lipid biomarker records in a thermokarst lake in Arctic Alaska

The Holocene ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (11) ◽  
pp. 1766-1777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Elvert ◽  
John W Pohlman ◽  
Kevin W Becker ◽  
Benjamin Gaglioti ◽  
Kai-Uwe Hinrichs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Thermokarst Lake ◽  
Arctic Alaska ◽  
Lipid Biomarker

scholarly journals Organic carbon characteristics in yedoma and thermokarst deposits on Baldwin Peninsula, West-Alaska

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loeka L. Jongejans ◽  
Jens Strauss ◽  
Josefine Lenz ◽  
Francien Peterse ◽  
Kai Mangelsdorf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Lake Sediments ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Thermokarst Lake ◽  
Discontinuous Permafrost ◽  
Lipid Biomarker ◽  
Biomarker Analysis ◽  
Thawing Permafrost

Abstract. As Arctic warming continues and permafrost thaws, more soil and sedimentary organic carbon (OC) will be decomposed in northern high latitudes. Still, uncertainties remain in the quantity and quality of OC stored in different deposit types of permafrost landscapes. This study presents OC data from deep permafrost and lake deposits on the Baldwin Peninsula which is located in the southern portion of the continuous permafrost zone in West Alaska. Sediment samples from yedoma and drained thermokarst lake basin (DTLB) deposits as well as thermokarst lake sediments were analyzed for cryostratigraphical and biogeochemical parameters and their lipid biomarker composition to identify the size and quality of belowground OC pools in ice-rich permafrost on Baldwin Peninsula. We provide the first detailed characterization of yedoma deposits on Baldwin Peninsula. We show that three quarters of soil organic carbon in the frozen deposits of the study region (total of 68 Mt) is stored in DTLB deposits (52 Mt) and one quarter in the frozen yedoma deposits (16 Mt). The lake sediments contain a relatively small OC pool (4 Mt), but have the highest volumetric OC content (93 kg/m3) compared to the DTLB (35 kg/m3) and yedoma deposits (8 kg/m3), largely due to differences in the ground ice content. The biomarker analysis indicates that the OC in both yedoma and DTLB deposits is mainly of terrestrial origin. Nevertheless, the relatively high carbon preference index of plant leaf waxes in combination with a lack of degradation trend with depth in the yedoma deposits indicates that OC stored in yedoma is less degraded than that stored in DTLB deposits. This suggests that OC in yedoma has a higher potential for decomposition upon thaw, despite the relatively small size of this pool. These findings highlight the importance of molecular OC analysis for determining the potential future greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost, especially because this area close to the discontinuous permafrost boundary is projected to thaw substantially within the 21st century.

scholarly journals A multi-proxy reconstruction of environmental change spanning the last 37,000 years from Burial Lake, Arctic Alaska

2015 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 227-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.S. Finkenbinder ◽  
M.B. Abbott ◽  
B.P. Finney ◽  
J.S. Stoner ◽  
J.M. Dorfman
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Arctic Alaska

scholarly journals Seasonal thaw settlement at drained thermokarst lake basins, Arctic Alaska

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 815-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Liu ◽  
K. Schaefer ◽  
A. Gusmeroli ◽  
G. Grosse ◽  
B. M. Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Deformation ◽  
Active Layer Thickness ◽  
Surface Dynamics ◽  
Thermokarst Lake ◽  
The North ◽  
Arctic Alaska ◽  
North Slope Of Alaska ◽  
Thaw Settlement ◽  
Ground Penetrating ◽  
Lake Basins

Abstract. Drained thermokarst lake basins (DTLBs) are ubiquitous landforms on Arctic tundra lowland. Their dynamic states are seldom investigated, despite their importance for landscape stability, hydrology, nutrient fluxes, and carbon cycling. Here we report results based on high-resolution Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) measurements using space-borne data for a study area located on the North Slope of Alaska near Prudhoe Bay, where we focus on the seasonal thaw settlement within DTLBs, averaged between 2006 and 2010. The majority (14) of the 18 DTLBs in the study area exhibited seasonal thaw settlement of 3–4 cm. However, four of the DTLBs examined exceeded 4 cm of thaw settlement, with one basin experiencing up to 12 cm. Combining the InSAR observations with the in situ active layer thickness measured using ground penetrating radar and mechanical probing, we calculated thaw strain, an index of thaw settlement strength along a transect across the basin that underwent large thaw settlement. We found thaw strains of 10–35% at the basin center, suggesting the seasonal melting of ground ice as a possible mechanism for the large settlement. These findings emphasize the dynamic nature of permafrost landforms, demonstrate the capability of the InSAR technique to remotely monitor surface deformation of individual DTLBs, and illustrate the combination of ground-based and remote sensing observations to estimate thaw strain. Our study highlights the need for better description of the spatial heterogeneity of landscape-scale processes for regional assessment of surface dynamics on Arctic coastal lowlands.

scholarly journals Organic Carbon and Nitrogen Stocks Along a Thermokarst Lake Sequence in Arctic Alaska

2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (5) ◽  
pp. 1230-1247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Fuchs ◽  
Josefine Lenz ◽  
Suzanne Jock ◽  
Ingmar Nitze ◽  
Benjamin M. Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen ◽  
Thermokarst Lake ◽  
Arctic Alaska ◽  
Carbon And Nitrogen Stocks

scholarly journals Organic matter characteristics in yedoma and thermokarst deposits on Baldwin Peninsula, west Alaska

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (20) ◽  
pp. 6033-6048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loeka L. Jongejans ◽  
Jens Strauss ◽  
Josefine Lenz ◽  
Francien Peterse ◽  
Kai Mangelsdorf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Matter ◽  
Lake Sediments ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Thermokarst Lake ◽  
Discontinuous Permafrost ◽  
Lipid Biomarker ◽  
Biomarker Analysis ◽  
Thawing Permafrost

Abstract. As Arctic warming continues and permafrost thaws, more soil and sedimentary organic matter (OM) will be decomposed in northern high latitudes. Still, uncertainties remain in the quality of the OM and the size of the organic carbon (OC) pools stored in different deposit types of permafrost landscapes. This study presents OM data from deep permafrost and lake deposits on the Baldwin Peninsula which is located in the southern portion of the continuous permafrost zone in west Alaska. Sediment samples from yedoma and drained thermokarst lake basin (DTLB) deposits as well as thermokarst lake sediments were analyzed for cryostratigraphical and biogeochemical parameters and their lipid biomarker composition to identify the belowground OC pool size and OM quality of ice-rich permafrost on the Baldwin Peninsula. We provide the first detailed characterization of yedoma deposits on Baldwin Peninsula. We show that three-quarters of soil OC in the frozen deposits of the study region (total of 68 Mt) is stored in DTLB deposits (52 Mt) and one-quarter in the frozen yedoma deposits (16 Mt). The lake sediments contain a relatively small OC pool (4 Mt), but have the highest volumetric OC content (93 kg m−3) compared to the DTLB (35 kg m−3) and yedoma deposits (8 kg m−3), largely due to differences in the ground ice content. The biomarker analysis indicates that the OM in both yedoma and DTLB deposits is mainly of terrestrial origin. Nevertheless, the relatively high carbon preference index of plant leaf waxes in combination with a lack of a degradation trend with depth in the yedoma deposits indicates that OM stored in yedoma is less degraded than that stored in DTLB deposits. This suggests that OM in yedoma has a higher potential for decomposition upon thaw, despite the relatively small size of this pool. These findings show that the use of lipid biomarker analysis is valuable in the assessment of the potential future greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost, especially because this area, close to the discontinuous permafrost boundary, is projected to thaw substantially within the 21st century.

scholarly journals Regional environmental change versus local signal preservation in Holocene thermokarst lake sediments: A case study from Herschel Island, Yukon (Canada)

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Fritz ◽  
Ingmar Unkel ◽  
Josefine Lenz ◽  
Konrad Gajewski ◽  
Peter Frenzel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Lake Sediments ◽  
Thermokarst Lake

scholarly journals Greenhouse gas production and lipid biomarker distribution in Yedoma and Alas thermokarst lake sediments in Eastern Siberia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loeka L. Jongejans ◽  
Susanne Liebner ◽  
Christian Knoblauch ◽  
Kai Mangelsdorf ◽  
Mathias Ulrich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Lake Sediments ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Eastern Siberia ◽  
Thermokarst Lake ◽  
Lipid Biomarker

scholarly journals Seasonal thaw settlement at drained thermokarst lake basins, Arctic Alaska

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 5793-5822
Author(s):  
L. Liu ◽  
K. Schaefer ◽  
A. Gusmeroli ◽  
G. Grosse ◽  
B. M. Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Deformation ◽  
Active Layer Thickness ◽  
Surface Dynamics ◽  
Thermokarst Lake ◽  
Arctic Alaska ◽  
Thaw Settlement ◽  
Ground Penetrating ◽  
Prudhoe Bay ◽  
Lake Basins

Abstract. Drained thermokarst lake basins (DTLBs) are ubiquitous landforms on arctic tundra lowlands, but their present-day dynamic states are seldom investigated. Here we report results based on high-resolution Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) measurements using space-borne data for a study area located near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska where we focus on the seasonal thaw settlement within DTLBs, averaged between 2006 and 2010. The majority (14) of the 18 DTLBs in the study area analyzed exhibited seasonal thaw settlement of 3–4 cm. However, four of the DTLBs analyzed exceeded 4 cm of thaw settlement, with one basin experiencing up to 12 cm. Combining the InSAR observations with the in situ active layer thickness measured using ground penetrating radar and mechanical probing, we calculated thaw strain, an index of thaw settlement strength along a transect across the basin that underwent large thaw settlement. We found thaw strains of 10–35% at the basin center, suggesting the seasonal melting of ground ice as a possible mechanism for the large settlement. These findings emphasize the dynamic nature of permafrost landforms, demonstrate the capability of the InSAR technique to remotely monitor surface deformation of individual DTLBs, and illustrate the combination of ground-based and remote sensing observations to estimate thaw strain. Our study highlights the need for better description of the spatial heterogeneity of landscape-scale processes for regional assessment of surface dynamics on arctic coastal lowlands.

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