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1. Assessing the Molecular‐Level Controls of Dissolved Organic Matter Cycling in West Siberian Lowland Rivers

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JG008537  

   Kurek, Martin R; Pokrovsky, Oleg S; Krickov, Ivan V; Lim, Artem G; Korets, Mikhail А; Spencer, Robert G (April 2025, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences)

   Abstract The West Siberian Lowland (WSL) contains some of the largest wetlands and most extensive peatlands on Earth, storing vast amounts of vulnerable carbon across permafrost‐free to continuous permafrost zones. As temperature and precipitation changes continue to alter the Siberian landscape, carbon transfer to the atmosphere and export to the Arctic Ocean will be impacted. However, the drivers of organic carbon transfer are largely unknown across this region. We characterized seasonal dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration and dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition of WSL rivers from the middle reaches of the Ob’ River in the permafrost‐free zone, as well as tributaries of the Taz River in the northern continuous permafrost zone. DOC and aromatic DOM properties increased from spring to autumn in the Ob’ tributaries, reflecting the seasonal transition from groundwater‐sourced to terrestrial DOM. Differences in molecular‐level signatures via ultra‐high resolution mass spectrometry revealed the influence of redox processes on DOM composition in the winter while terrestrial DOM sourcing shifted from surface litter aliphatics and highly unsaturated and phenolic high‐O/C (HUP_{High O/C}) compounds in the spring to subsurface soils and HUP_{Low O/C}compounds by autumn. Furthermore, aromaticity and organic N were related to landscape properties including peatlands, forest cover, and the ratio of needleleaf:broadleaf forests. Finally, the Taz River tributaries were similar to summer and autumn Ob’ tributaries, but more enriched in N and S‐containing compounds. These signatures were likely derived from thawing permafrost, which we expect to increase in northern rivers due to active layer expansion in a warming Arctic. 

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2. Signatures of Arctic Change: Molecular‐Level Composition and Bioavailability of Shifting Dissolved Organic Matter Sources

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JG008899  

   Slentz, A E; McKenna, A M; Kellerman, A M; Holt, A D; Burns, A J; Miller, M G; Wagner, S; Tzortziou, M; Smith, H; Mannino, A; et al (July 2025, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences)

   The Arctic is experiencing unprecedented rates of climate change, leading to numerous disturbances on the terrestrial landscape, including shrubification, increased frequency of wildfires, and permafrost thaw. These changes may impact the mobilization of terrestrial organic carbon into Arctic rivers and are hypothesized to lead to distinct alterations to the molecular composition and thus the reactivity of riverine dissolved organic matter (DOM). To understand how these three major perturbations may impact DOM dynamics in Arctic fluvial and coastal systems, we examined the concentration and bioavailability of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) together with the molecular‐level DOM composition of different source endmember leachates from the Yukon River watershed using biodegradation incubation experiments and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT‐ICR MS). Simulated climate‐related landscape perturbations generally led to increased leachate DOC concentrations. Incubations demonstrated that the biodegradability of leachate DOC was lowest for vegetation endmembers, particularly for shrubs (12.3% DOC loss), and highest for thawing Yedoma permafrost (64.9% loss) and organic‐rich tundra soil (70.9% loss). FT‐ICR MS highlighted that aliphatic and high‐H/C molecular formulas were preferentially biodegraded, whereas condensed aromatic and polyphenolic compounds were relatively enriched post‐biodegradation in all endmember leachates. Together these findings suggest that with continued climate change and landscape perturbation, larger amounts of less bioavailable DOC will be mobilized into Arctic rivers leading to higher relative amounts of highly aromatic, biologically stable DOM being exported into receiving ecosystems and the Arctic Ocean, potentially altering the rates and mechanisms of carbon turnover in the coastal zone. 

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3. Characterizing Boreal Peatland Plant Composition and Species Diversity with Hyperspectral Remote Sensing

   https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11141685  

   McPartland, Mara; Falkowski, Michael; Reinhardt, Jason; Kane, Evan; Kolka, Randy; Turetsky, Merritt; Douglas, Thomas; Anderson, John; Edwards, Jarrod; Palik, Brian; et al (July 2019, Remote Sensing)

   Peatlands, which account for approximately 15% of land surface across the arctic and boreal regions of the globe, are experiencing a range of ecological impacts as a result of climate change. Factors that include altered hydrology resulting from drought and permafrost thaw, rising temperatures, and elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have been shown to cause plant community compositional changes. Shifts in plant composition affect the productivity, species diversity, and carbon cycling of peatlands. We used hyperspectral remote sensing to characterize the response of boreal peatland plant composition and species diversity to warming, hydrologic change, and elevated CO2. Hyperspectral remote sensing techniques offer the ability to complete landscape-scale analyses of ecological responses to climate disturbance when paired with plot-level measurements that link ecosystem biophysical properties with spectral reflectance signatures. Working within two large ecosystem manipulation experiments, we examined climate controls on composition and diversity in two types of common boreal peatlands: a nutrient rich fen located at the Alaska Peatland Experiment (APEX) in central Alaska, and an ombrotrophic bog located in northern Minnesota at the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE) experiment. We found a strong effect of plant functional cover on spectral reflectance characteristics. We also found a positive relationship between species diversity and spectral variation at the APEX field site, which is consistent with other recently published findings. Based on the results of our field study, we performed a supervised land cover classification analysis on an aerial hyperspectral dataset to map peatland plant functional types (PFTs) across an area encompassing a range of different plant communities. Our results underscore recent advances in the application of remote sensing measurements to ecological research, particularly in far northern ecosystems. 

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4. Organic Matter Composition Versus Microbial Source: Controls on Carbon Loss From Fen Wetland and Permafrost Soils

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JG008445  

   Starr, Sommer F; Wickland, Kimberly P; Kellerman, Anne M; McKenna, Amy M; Kurek, Martin R; Miller, Aubrey; Katsaras, Ariana; Douglas, Thomas A; Mackelprang, Rachel; Shade, Ashley L; et al (May 2025, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences)

   Abstract Wetland and permafrost soils contain some of Earth's largest reservoirs of organic carbon, and these stores are threatened by rapid warming across the Arctic. Nearly half of northern wetlands are affected by permafrost. As these ecosystems warm, the cycling of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and the opportunities for microbial degradation are changing. This is particularly evident as the relationship between wetland and permafrost DOM dynamics evolves, especially with the introduction of permafrost‐derived DOM into wetland environments. Thus, understanding the interplay of DOM composition and microbial communities from wetlands and permafrost is critical to predicting the impact of released carbon on global carbon cycling. As little is understood about the interactions between wetland active layer and permafrost‐derived sources as they intermingle, we conducted experimental bioincubations of mixtures of DOM and microbial communities from two fen wetland depths (shallow: 0–15 cm, and deep: 15–30 cm) and two ages of permafrost soil (Holocene and Pleistocene). We found that the source of microbial inoculum was not a significant driver of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) degradation across treatments; rather, DOM source and specifically, DOM molecular composition, controlled the rate of DOC loss over 100 days of bioincubations. DOC loss across all treatments was negatively correlated with modified aromaticity index, O/C, and the relative abundance of condensed aromatic and polyphenolic formula, and positively correlated with H/C and the relative abundance of aliphatic and peptide‐like formula. Pleistocene permafrost‐derived DOC exhibited ∼70% loss during the bioincubation driven by its initial molecular‐level composition, highlighting its high bioavailability irrespective of microbial source. 

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5. Controls on Stable Methane Isotope Values in Northern Peatlands and Potential Shifts in Values Under Permafrost Thaw Scenarios

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JG007837  

   Kuhn, McKenzie A; Varner, Ruth K; McCalley, Carmody K; Perryman, Clarice R; Aurela, Mika; Burke, Sophia A; Chanton, Jeffrey P; Crill, Patrick M; DelGreco, Jessica; Deng, Jia; et al (July 2024, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences)

   Abstract Northern peatlands are a globally significant source of methane (CH₄), and emissions are projected to increase due to warming and permafrost loss. Understanding the microbial mechanisms behind patterns in CH₄production in peatlands will be key to predicting annual emissions changes, with stable carbon isotopes (δ¹³C‐CH₄) being a powerful tool for characterizing these drivers. Given that δ¹³C‐CH₄is used in top‐down atmospheric inversion models to partition sources, our ability to model CH₄production pathways and associated δ¹³C‐CH₄values is critical. We sought to characterize the role of environmental conditions, including hydrologic and vegetation patterns associated with permafrost thaw, on δ¹³C‐CH₄values from high‐latitude peatlands. We measured porewater and emitted CH₄stable isotopes, pH, and vegetation composition from five boreal‐Arctic peatlands. Porewater δ¹³C‐CH₄was strongly associated with peatland type, with δ¹³C enriched values obtained from more minerotrophic fens (−61.2 ± 9.1‰) compared to permafrost‐free bogs (−74.1 ± 9.4‰) and raised permafrost bogs (−81.6 ± 11.5‰). Variation in porewater δ¹³C‐CH₄was best explained by sedge cover, CH₄concentration, and the interactive effect of peatland type and pH (r² = 0.50,p < 0.001). Emitted δ¹³C‐CH₄varied greatly but was positively correlated with porewater δ¹³C‐CH₄. We calculated a mixed atmospheric δ¹³C‐CH₄value for northern peatlands of −65.3 ± 7‰ and show that this value is more sensitive to landscape drying than wetting under permafrost thaw scenarios. Our results suggest northern peatland δ¹³C‐CH₄values are likely to shift in the future which has important implications for source partitioning in atmospheric inversion models. 

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