Carbon cycling in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic lakes
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Date
2021-12-17
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Abstract
Between 2000 and 2010, anthropogenic carbon emissions rose at rates of 2.2% year-1, a 70% increase above the annual rates observed between 1970 and 2000. This has accelerated global temperature increases. As a result, carbon fluxes to and from aquatic environments have changed, affecting microbial community compositions, and impacting the ability of some environments to act as carbon stores. Whilst the factors influencing nutrient cycling in many aquatic environments, including major rivers and oceans, have been well studied, little is known about the biogeochemical processes driving aquatic carbon cycling in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic lakes, and how this may be impacted by climate change. This is in part because sampling programs designed for such isolated environments take years to plan and require international collaboration. The isolation of these lakes however mean that many are relatively undisturbed by human activities, making them ideal locations to study the interactions between hydrological and biogeochemical processes, and the impact of climate change on natural carbon sources, transformation and storage. We aim to analyse Antarctic and sub-Antarctic lake water using organic carbon characterisation techniques such as fluorescence, liquid chromatography organic carbon detection and synchrotron characterisation, as well as radiocarbon and stable carbon isotopes of dissolved organic carbon (14CDOC and 13CDOC) and dissolved inorganic carbon (14CDIC and 13CDIC). This will allow us to identify key carbon sources such as terrestrial vegetation, groundwater and permafrost thaw, carbon age, and cycling via biodegradation or other processing mechanisms. The data collected for this project will form the first comprehensive spatial and temporal survey of dissolved carbon in both organic and inorganic phases in lakes across the region, aimed at understanding present-day environmental processes and their drivers. These data also have the potential to calibrate palaeo-records such as peat and lake archives which will assist in the understanding of the impacts of large-scale climate variability and environmental changes that may occur in the future.
Description
Keywords
Carbon cycle, Lakes, Antarctic regions, Climatic change, Carbon 14, Ground water, Paleoclimatology
Citation
McDonough, L., Meredith, K., Saunders, K., & Baker, A. (2021). Carbon cycling in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic lakes. Poster presented at the AGU Fall Meeting 2021, New Orleans, Los Angeles and Online, 13-17 December 2021. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts, Vol. 2021, B45J-1756. Retrieved from: https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm21/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/879073