title: Carbon cycle. Sunlight controls water column processing of carbon in arctic fresh waters.
abstract: Carbon in thawing permafrost soils may have global impacts on climate change; however, the factors that control its processing and fate are poorly understood. The dominant fate of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) released from soils to inland waters is either complete oxidation to CO2 or partial oxidation and river export to oceans. Although both processes are most often attributed to bacterial respiration, we found that photochemical oxidation exceeds rates of respiration and accounts for 70 to 95% of total DOC processed in the water column of arctic lakes and rivers. At the basin scale, photochemical processing of DOC is about one-third of the total CO2 released from surface waters and is thus an important component of the arctic carbon budget.
authors.affiliation: Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. rmcory@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Rose M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Cory
authors.affiliation: Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Collin P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.affiliation: Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
authors.forename: Byron C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Crump
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
authors.forename: George W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Kling
mesh_terms: D001110:Arctic Regions; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D057486:Carbon Cycle; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000737:chemistry*; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry; D055668:Photochemical Processes; D012987:Soil; D013472:Sunlight; D053833:Wetlands
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002244:Carbon