The Buffering Balance: Modeling Arctic river total-, inorganic-, and organic-alkalinity fluxes

Abstract:

River-borne inputs of alkalinity influence the pH and pCO₂ of coastal ocean waters, and changes in alkalinity inputs also have implications for responses to climate-driven ocean acidification. Recent work has shown that alkalinity fluxes from rivers are not always dominated by inorganic carbon species, and can instead be composed somewhat or mostly of non-carbonate, presumably organic species. Concentrations and proportions of organic alkalinity (O-Alk) are correlated to dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and fluxes, which are predicted to rise as Arctic permafrost thaws and the hydrologic cycle intensifies. We have scaled results from watershed studies to develop a process-based model to simulate and aggregate Arctic river exports of total alkalinity, DOC, and O-Alk to the coastal sea. Total alkalinity, DOC, and O-Alk were loaded to a river network and routed through a 6-minute hydrologic model (FrAMES). We present results contrasting poorly buffered (e.g. the Kolyma river) and highly buffered (e.g. the Yukon river) systems, the impact of O-Alk on river pH and pCO₂, and examine the seasonalities of inorganic and organic influences on coastal ocean carbonate chemistry.