Dissolved Organic Matter in Arctic and Boreal Streams: Rates and Fates of Decomposition

Abstract:

As high-latitude regions warm, new inputs of carbon from thawing permafrost may influence the carbon cycle. Some of this newly released carbon, bound up in molecules of dissolved organic matter (DOM), will be exported into streams and rivers where it may be incorporated into microbial biomass, released to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, or exported downstream. The factors that control the fate of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) are not fully understood, nor are the seasonal and spatial dynamics of these relationships. We sampled six streams along an arctic-boreal gradient in interior Alaska, collecting water from under ice in April, during snowmelt (May), and in early summer (June). These samples were incubated in the laboratory to determine the fraction of DOC that is susceptible to microbial decomposition and the fraction released as carbon dioxide_.  Nitrogen and phosphorous additions were used to determine the effect of nutrient limitation on DOC processing. Percent DOC loss across sites ranged from 37-71% in April before snowmelt, 0-9% during snowmelt, and 0-53% in June. We observed no effect of nutrient addition on lability of DOC. Seasonal data are critical to predicting how the processing of DOC in streams will respond to changes in permafrost extent, as well as to changes in the timing of snowmelt and ice-off.