Dissolved Organic Carbon Coming from Rivers Could Impact Arctic Ocean
13.02.2008 - Other
A new study challenges the fact that dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in Alaskan rivers is largely refractory, having little or no significance for the biochemistry of the Arctic Ocean. Results prove that DOC in Alaskan arctic rivers is remarkably labile during the spring flood period, when the majority of annual DOC flux occurs. It could thus have a far geater impact on the biochemistry of the Arctic Ocean than previously thought.
Although the Arctic Ocean represents only about 1% of global ocean volume, it receives almost 10% of global river discharge. As a consequence, the labile organic carbon transported by arctic rivers has the potential to strongly impact the chemistry and biology of the Arctic Ocean.
Dr Holmes, lead authors of the paper recently published in Geophysical Research Letters says:
"Though tantalizing evidence has been emerging in recent years, this study was the first to directly show that dissolved organic carbon in rivers during the spring flood period is highly labile. [...] If the pattern we've shown for Alaskan arctic rivers holds for the much larger Siberian rivers, and preliminary evidence suggests that it will, then we'll have to rethink the role of terrestrially-derived DOC as a potential energy source driving the coastal ocean foodweb in the Arctic."
