Hydrology Controls Dissolved Organic Carbon and Nitrogen Export and Post-Storm Recovery in Two Arctic Headwaters
Shogren A, Zarnetske JP, Abbott BW, Grose AL, Rec AF, Nipko J, Song C, O'Donnell JA, Bowden WB. 2024. Hydrology Controls Dissolved Organic Carbon and Nitrogen Export and Post-Storm Recovery in Two Arctic Headwaters. Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences. 129(2)
The Arctic is one of the first regions to experience the impacts of climate change and is already experiencing rapid changes to the water cycle, seasonality, and permafrost state. These changes can be expressed in the chemistry observed in a river network, and ecosystem-scale responses to change are integrated at a watershed outlet. With this study, we leveraged 5 years of high-frequency data collected from two Arctic headwaters to observe how these watersheds respond to hydrologic disturbance. Overall, we found that at the event-scale, Arctic rivers are responsive to precipitation events, where carbon (C) increases and reactive nitrogen (N) as nitrate. is diluted in tandem when a storm event occurs. We also found that after the peak of the storm event, there is a difference in recovery rates for C and N that indicate storm events represent a hydrologic and biogeochemical disturbance. Overall, our findings are important for documenting hydrologic responses to a changing Arctic.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Shogren, Arial; Zarnetske, Jay; Abbott, Benjamin; Grose, Amelia; Rec, Abigail; Nipko, Jansen; Song, Chao; O'Donnell, Jonathan; Bowden, William