Julia R. Larouche

Elevated dissolved organic carbon biodegradability from thawing and collapsing permafrost

As high latitudes warm, a portion of the large organic carbon pool stored in permafrost will become available for transport to aquatic ecosystems as dissolved organic carbon (DOC). If permafrost DOC is biodegradable, much will be mineralized to the atmosphere in freshwater systems before reaching the ocean, accelerating carbon transfer from permafrost to the atmosphere, whereas if recalcitrant, it will reach marine ecosystems where it may persist over long time periods. We measured biodegradable DOC (BDOC) in water flowing from collapsing permafrost (thermokarst) on the North Slope of Alaska and tested the role of DOC chemical composition and nutrient concentration in determining biodegradability. DOC from collapsing permafrost was some of the most biodegradable reported in natural systems. However, elevated BDOC only persisted during active permafrost degradation, with a return to predisturbance levels once thermokarst features stabilized. Biodegradability was correlated with background nutrient concentration, but nutrient addition did not increase overall BDOC, suggesting that chemical composition may be a more important control on DOC processing. Despite its high biodegradability, permafrost DOC showed evidence of substantial previous microbial processing, and we present four hypotheses explaining this incongruity. Because thermokarst features form preferentially on river banks and lake shores and can remain active for decades, thermokarst may be the dominant short-term mechanism delivering sediment, nutrients, and biodegradable organic matter to aquatic systems as the Arctic warms.

Microbial Biogeography of Arctic Streams: Exploring Influences of Lithology and Habitat

Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and 16S rRNA gene sequencing were used to explore the community composition of bacterial communities in biofilms on sediments (epipssamon) and rocks (epilithon) in stream reaches that drain watersheds with contrasting lithologies in the Noatak National Preserve, Alaska. Bacterial community composition varied primarily by stream habitat and secondarily by lithology. Positive correlations were detected between bacterial community structure and nutrients, base cations, and dissolved organic carbon. Our results showed significant differences at the stream habitat, between epipssamon and epilithon bacterial communities, which we expected. Our results also showed significant differences at the landscape scale that could be related to different lithologies and associated stream biogeochemistry. These results provide insight into the bacterial community composition of little known and pristine arctic stream ecosystems and illustrate how differences in the lithology, soils, and vegetation community of the terrestrial environment interact to influence stream bacterial taxonomic richness and composition.