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- Title
Organic carbon and total nitrogen stocks in soils of the Lena River Delta.
- Authors
Zubrzycki, S.; Kutzbach, L.; Grosse, G.; Desyatkin, A.; Pfeiffer, E.-M.
- Abstract
The Lena River Delta, which is the largest delta in the Arctic, extends over an area of 32 000 km² and likely holds more than half of the entire soil organic carbon mass stored in the seven major deltas in the northern permafrost regions. The geomorphic units of the Lena River Delta which were formed by true deltaic sedimentation processes are a Holocene river terrace and the active floodplains. Their mean soil organic carbon stocks for the upper 1m of soils were estimated at 29 kgm-2 ± 10 kgm-2 and at 14 kgm-2 ± 7 kgm-2, respectively. For the depth of 1m, the total soil organic carbon pool of the Holocene river terrace was estimated at 121 Tg± 43 Tg, and the soil organic carbon pool of the active floodplains was estimated at 120 Tg± 66 Tg. The mass of soil organic carbon stored within the observed seasonally thawed active layer was estimated at about 127 Tg assuming an average maximum active layer depth of 50 cm. The soil organic carbon mass which is stored in the perennially frozen ground below 50 cm soil depth, which is excluded from intense biogeochemical exchange with the atmosphere, was estimated at 113 Tg. The mean nitrogen (N) stocks for the upper 1m of soils were estimated at 1.2 kgm-2 ± 0.4 kgm-2 for the Holocene river terrace and at 0.9 kgm-2 ± 0.4 kgm-2 for the active floodplain levels, respectively. For the depth of 1m, the total N pool of the river terrace was estimated at 4.8 Tg± 1.5 Tg, and the total N pool of the floodplains was estimated at 7.7 Tg± 3.6 Tg. Considering the projections for deepening of the seasonally thawed active layer up to 120 cm in the Lena River Delta region within the 21st century, these large carbon and nitrogen stocks could become increasingly available for decomposition and mineralization processes.
- Publication
Biogeosciences Discussions, 2012, Vol 9, Issue 12, p17263
- ISSN
1810-6277
- Publication type
Academic Journal
- DOI
10.5194/bgd-9-17263-2012