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Title: Impacts of convective storms on runoff, erosion, and carbon export in a continuous permafrost landscape
Permafrost holds more than twice the amount of carbon currently in the atmosphere, but this large carbon reservoir is vulnerable to thaw and erosion under a rapidly changing Arctic climate. Convective storms are becoming increasingly common during Arctic summers and can amplify runoff and erosion. These extreme events, in concert with active layer deepening, may accelerate carbon loss from the Arctic landscape. However, we lack measurements of carbon fluxes during these events. Rivers are sensitive to physical, chemical, and hydrological perturbations, and thus are excellent systems for studying landscape responses to thunderstorms. We present observations from the Canning River, Alaska, which drains the northern Brooks Range and flows across a continuous permafrost landscape to the Beaufort Sea. During summer 2022 and 2023 field campaigns, we opportunistically monitored river discharge, sediment, and organic carbon fluxes during several thunderstorms. During one notable storm, river discharge nearly doubled from ~130 m3/s to ~240 m3/s, suspended sediment flux increased 70-fold, and the particulate organic carbon (POC) flux increased 90-fold relative to non-storm conditions. Taken together, the river exported ~16 metric tons of POC over one hour of this sustained event, not including the additional flux of woody debris. Furthermore, the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) flux nearly doubled. Although these thunderstorm-driven fluxes are short-lived (hours to days), they play an outsized role in exporting organic carbon from Arctic rivers. Understanding how these extreme events impact river water, sediment, and carbon dynamics will help predict how Arctic climate change will modify the global carbon cycle.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2419995
PAR ID:
10555500
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ;
Editor(s):
Beddoe, Riley; Karunaratne, Kumari
Publisher / Repository:
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Permafrost Whitehorse, Canada
Date Published:
Volume:
1
Page Range / eLocation ID:
341-348
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
permafrost carbon arctic rivers runoff
Format(s):
Medium: X Other: PDF/A
Location:
https://doi.org/10.52381/ICOP2024.104.1
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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