A comparison of lakes in the Kolyma River region that receive inputs of Holocene and Pleistocene origin

The Siberian Arctic contains vast amounts of carbon stored in permafrost soils. Throughout this region there are many lakes and rivers that receive input of organic matter from terrestrial sources. Previous research suggests that these freshwater ecosystems are actively processing carbon, rather than functioning only as passive transporters. Ongoing climate warming in this vulnerable region is expected to cause increasing permafrost thaw and a likely increase of the inflow of permafrost-derived carbon to freshwater ecosystems. We aim to improve our understanding of how these freshwater ecosystems are processing carbon to increase our ability to predict how climate change will affect this region. This study was performed in July 2011 as part of the Polaris Project (www.polarisproject.org). We focused upon lakes in the Kolyma River watershed, the world's largest river underlain by continuous permafrost. These lakes receive inputs of allochthonous material from either Holocene (floodplain lakes) or Pleistocene (yedoma lakes) soils. We sampled a range of lakes (floodplain n=3; yedoma n=3) for DOC concentration and lability, by means of biological oxygen demand assays, in combination with N and P measurements and water column profiles (oxygen concentrations, pH, specific conductivity and temperature). Chlorophyll a concentrations were measured as a comparison of autochthonous production between lakes. Our findings indicate that yedoma lakes are generally stratified but also display a high variability in their vertical structure over relatively short time scales (the fieldwork took place over three weeks). Furthermore, floodplain lakes had more than twice the concentration of chlorophyll a in the surface water as yedoma lakes, suggesting more autotrophic production. Yedoma lakes contained approximately 40% more DOC than floodplain lakes in surface waters. However, the lability of yedoma lake DOC was half that of floodplain lakes. The higher concentrations of DOC within yedoma lakes may therefore be driven by the more refractory nature of the organic matter pool within these lakes.