scholarly journals Seabird Transfer of Nutrients and Trace Elements from the North Water Polynya to Land during the Mid-Holocene Warm Period, Carey Islands, Northwest Greenland + Supplementary Appendix Figure S1 (See Article Tools)

ARCTIC ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Outridge ◽  
Michael E. Goodsite ◽  
Ole Bennike ◽  
Nicole Rausch ◽  
William Shotyk

Seabird guano from large nesting colonies is known to increase trace metal levels in adjacent terrestrial environments today, when global oceans are contaminated with Hg, Cd, and other metals. But the effect of seabird guano in the pre-industrial period has rarely been studied. We used stable C and N isotopic and trace element analyses of a peat core that represents ca. 2000 years of organic matter accumulation to examine the effect on trace elements and nutrients of a seabird colony that existed in northern Baffin Bay during the Holocene Thermal Maximum (ca. 8000–5000 yr BP). Although C and N concentrations were typical of those in other peats, isotopic data identified marine organic matter as the main source of N and a minor source of C in the peat and showed that the unknown seabird was a fish-eating species that was summer-resident for the 2000 yr period. Concentrations of Cd, Br, Sr, and Zn in peat were up to an order of magnitude higher than in ombrotrophic (air-fed) bogs elsewhere, whereas Hg and Cu concentrations were similar to those in other peats, suggesting relatively low levels of Hg and Cu in the guano. This surprising result for Hg contrasts with studies on modern seabirds, in which guano markedly increased environmental Hg concentrations. It could be a consequence of Hg concentrations in Arctic marine food webs in the pre-industrial period that were an order of magnitude lower than those of today.

2012 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renato da Silva Carreira ◽  
Elizabeth A. Canuel ◽  
Stephen A. Macko ◽  
Mariana B. Lopes ◽  
Letícia G. Luz ◽  
...  

Sterol and fatty acid biomarkers and isotopic composition (δ13C and δ15N) of bulk organic matter (OM) were quantified in a sediment core to characterize the accumulation of autochthonous OM in an area on the continental shelf adjacent to Rio de Janeiro State. In the sediment surface (0-1 cm) the concentration of total sterols and fatty acids was at least one order of magnitude higher than that measured deeper down in the core and was dominated by labile and planktonic-derived biomarker compounds. These results suggest, as is confirmed by multivariate statistical analysis, the occurrence of an event of enhanced primary production in the water column and efficient export of particles to the bottom. Similar conditions have been observed at Cabo Frio, located 150 km to the north of our study site, during an upwelling event, suggesting that such events may exert a regional influence on primary production on the south-eastern Brazilian continental shelf. Beyond the signatures from this event, the presence of biomarker compounds from vascular plants suggests the additional influence of an outflow from Guanabara Bay at the study site. These results point to the need for further investigation of the relative influence of physical forcings and continental inputs on the biogeochemical processes on the section of the continental shelf considered in the present study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 103754
Author(s):  
Naghmeh Soltani ◽  
Michel Marengo ◽  
Behnam Keshavarzi ◽  
Farid Moore ◽  
Peter S. Hooda ◽  
...  

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 1953-1964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Fernandez ◽  
Juan Gabriel Álvarez-González ◽  
Beatríz Carrasco ◽  
Ana Daría Ruíz-González ◽  
Ana Cabaneiro

Forest ecosystems can act as C sinks, thus absorbing a high percentage of atmospheric CO2. Appropriate silvicultural regimes can therefore be applied as useful tools in climate change mitigation strategies. The present study analyzed the temporal changes in the effects of thinning on soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics and on soil CO2 emissions in radiata pine ( Pinus radiata D. Don) forests. Soil C effluxes were monitored over a period of 2 years in thinned and unthinned plots. In addition, soil samples from the plots were analyzed by solid-state 13C-NMR to determine the post-thinning SOM composition and fresh soil samples were incubated under laboratory conditions to determine their biodegradability. The results indicate that the potential soil C mineralization largely depends on the proportion of alkyl-C and N-alkyl-C functional groups in the SOM and on the microbial accessibility of the recalcitrant organic pool. Soil CO2 effluxes varied widely between seasons and increased exponentially with soil heating. Thinning led to decreased soil respiration and attenuation of the seasonal fluctuations. These effects were observed for up to 20 months after thinning, although they disappeared thereafter. Thus, moderate thinning caused enduring changes to the SOM composition and appeared to have temporary effects on the C storage capacity of forest soils, which is a critical aspect under the current climatic change scenario.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 4861-4874 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. M. Stacy ◽  
S. C. Hart ◽  
C. T. Hunsaker ◽  
D. W. Johnson ◽  
A. A. Berhe

Abstract. Lateral movement of organic matter (OM) due to erosion is now considered an important flux term in terrestrial carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) budgets, yet most published studies on the role of erosion focus on agricultural or grassland ecosystems. To date, little information is available on the rate and nature of OM eroded from forest ecosystems. We present annual sediment composition and yield, for water years 2005–2011, from eight catchments in the southern part of the Sierra Nevada, California. Sediment was compared to soil at three different landform positions from the source slopes to determine if there is selective transport of organic matter or different mineral particle size classes. Sediment export varied from 0.4 to 177 kg ha−1, while export of C in sediment was between 0.025 and 4.2 kg C ha−1 and export of N in sediment was between 0.001 and 0.04 kg N ha−1. Sediment yield and composition showed high interannual variation. In our study catchments, erosion laterally mobilized OM-rich litter material and topsoil, some of which enters streams owing to the catchment topography where steep slopes border stream channels. Annual lateral sediment export was positively and strongly correlated with stream discharge, while C and N concentrations were both negatively correlated with stream discharge; hence, C : N ratios were not strongly correlated to sediment yield. Our results suggest that stream discharge, more than sediment source, is a primary factor controlling the magnitude of C and N export from upland forest catchments. The OM-rich nature of eroded sediment raises important questions about the fate of the eroded OM. If a large fraction of the soil organic matter (SOM) eroded from forest ecosystems is lost during transport or after deposition, the contribution of forest ecosystems to the erosion-induced C sink is likely to be small (compared to croplands and grasslands).


2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Sigman ◽  
Peter J. DiFiore ◽  
Mathis P. Hain ◽  
Curtis Deutsch ◽  
David M. Karl

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Mohrlok ◽  
Victoria Martin ◽  
Alberto Canarini ◽  
Wolfgang Wanek ◽  
Michael Bahn ◽  
...  

<p>Soil organic matter (SOM) is composed of many pools with different properties (e.g. turnover times) which are generally used in biogeochemical models to predict carbon (C) dynamics. Physical fractionation methods are applied to isolate soil fractions that correspond to these pools. This allows the characterisation of chemical composition and C content of these fractions. There is still a lack of knowledge on how these individual fractions are affected by different climate change drivers, and therefore the fate of SOM remains elusive. We sampled soils from a multifactorial climate change experiment in a managed grassland in Austria four years after starting the experiment to investigate the response of SOM in physical soil fractions to temperature (eT: ambient and elevated by +3°C), atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>-concentration (eCO<sub>2</sub>: ambient and elevated by +300 ppm) and to a future climate treatment (eT x eCO<sub>2</sub>: +3°C and + 300 ppm). A combination of slaking and wet sieving was used to obtain three size classes: macro-aggregates (maA, > 250 µm), micro-aggregates (miA, 63 µm – 250 µm) and free silt & clay (sc, < 63 µm). In both maA and miA, four different physical OM fractions were then isolated by density fractionation (using sodium polytungstate of ρ = 1.6 g*cm<sup>-3</sup>, ultrasonication and sieving): Free POM (fPOM), intra-aggregate POM (iPOM), silt & clay associated OM (SCaOM) and sand-associated OM (SaOM). We measured C and N contents and isotopic composition by EA-IRMS in all fractions and size classes and used a Pyrolysis-GC/MS approach to assess their chemical composition. For eCO<sub>2</sub> and eT x eCO<sub>2 </sub>plots, an isotope mixing-model was used to calculate the proportion of recent C derived from the elevated CO<sub>2 </sub>treatment. Total soil C and N did not significantly change with treatments.  eCO<sub>2</sub> decreased the relative proportion of maA-mineral-associated C and increased C in fPOM and iPOM. About 20% of bulk soil C was represented by the recent C derived from the CO<sub>2</sub> fumigation treatment. This significantly differed between size classes and density fractions (p < 0.001), which indicates inherent differences in OM age and turnover. Warming reduced the amount of new C incorporated into size classes. We found that each size class and fraction possessed a unique chemical fingerprint, but this was not significantly changed by the treatments. Overall, our results show that while climate change effects on total soil C were not significant after 4 years, soil fractions showed specific effects. Chemical composition differed significantly between size classes and fractions but was unaffected by simulated climate change. This highlights the importance to separate SOM into differing pools, while including changes to the molecular composition might not be necessary for improving model predictions.    </p>


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