A Multi-Biomarker Biogeochemical Investigation of a Permafrost Core from Interior Alaska Dating to 40,000 Years Before Present: Insight Into Millenial-Scale Carbon Accumulation and Degradation Status
Abstract
High latitude regions that were not directly glaciated have accumulated permafrost organic C (OC) throughout and prior to the last glacial period. Climate warming is expected to thaw these relict soils through expansion of the seasonally frozen active layer and re-expose them to active C cycling. Past climate perturbations also expanded the active layer and their effects were subsequently recorded in the bulk and molecular character of the now-buried permafrost soils. Here, we analyze a 5.4 m long permafrost core taken from an interior Alaska tundra site to assess its deep OC stock and molecular composition. OC stocks were quantified using elemental analysis and accumulation rates were estimated using 14C dating of 11 plant macrofossil samples. Organic matter source was indicated using lignin (overall plant contribution), amino acids (microbial contributions), and n-alkanes (vascular to non-vascular plant contributions), degradation status was indicated using lignin acid to aldehyde ratios (Ad:Al) and amino acid composition, and temperature was estimated via the branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol (GDGT) thermometer. Soil ages extended to 40,000 years, although a gap in 14C ages spanning from about 33 to 13 ka coincides with a 1.5 m thick, low OC (< 1 %OC) section of the core. We estimated a Holocene accumulation rate of 2.9 g OC m-2 yr-1, while mid-Wisconsin (40-30 ka) soils had a rate of 20.4 g OC m-2 yr-1, driven in part by the seven-fold higher sedimentation rate of the latter (0.4 mm yr-1). Lignin vannilyl Ad:Al indicated that mid-Wisconsin OC (mean Ad:Al 0.37) is well preserved compared to the Holocene section (mean Ad:Al 0.60), consistent with the older soils experiencing shorter residence times within the active layer due to faster sedimentation as well as potentially cooler temperatures. GDGT-derived temperatures were complicated by anomalously warm values in mid-Wisconsin soils (average mean annual temperature of 5.3°C compared to -1°C currently) and highly variable temperatures within the contemporary active layer. We suspect the unusually warm mid-Wisconsin temperatures are derived from an uncalibrated microbial community. These results are bolstered using n-alkane and amino acid biomarkers.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFM.B41I2090H
- Keywords:
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- 0428 Carbon cycling;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0486 Soils/pedology;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 0702 Permafrost;
- CRYOSPHERE;
- 1615 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- GLOBAL CHANGE