Biospheric and petrogenic organic carbon flux along southeast Alaska

Abstract

Holocene fjords store ca. 11–12% of the total organic carbon (OC) buried in marine sediments with fjords along southeast (SE) Alaska possibly storing half of this OC (Smith et al., 2015). However, the respective burial of biospheric (OCbio) and petrogenic OC (OCpetro) remains poorly constrained, particularly across glaciated versus non-glaciated systems. Here, we use surface sediment samples to quantify the sources and burial of sedimentary OC along SE Alaska fjord-coastal systems, and conduct a latitudinal comparison across a suite of fjords and river-coastal systems with distinctive OC sources. Our results for SE Alaska show that surface sediments in northern fjords (north of Icy Strait) with headwater glaciers are dominated by OCpetro, in contrast to marine and terrestrially-derived fresh OC in non-glaciated southern fjords. Along the continental shelf of the Gulf of Alaska, terrestrial OC is exported from rivers. Using end-member mixing models, we determine that glaciated fjords have significantly higher burial rates of OCpetro (∼1.1×103 gOC m−2yr−1) than non-glaciated fjords and other coastal systems, making SE Alaska potentially the largest sink of OCpetro in North America. In contrast, non-glaciated fjords in SE Alaska are effective in burying marine OC (OCbio-mari) (13–82 g OC m−2yr−1). Globally, OC in fjord sediments are comprised of a mixture of OCpetro and fresh OCbio, in contrast to the pre-aged OC from floodplain river-coastal systems. We find that there may be a general latitudinal trend in the role of fjords in processing OC, where high-latitude temperate glacial fjords (e.g., Yakutat Bay, SE Alaska) rebury OCpetro and non-glacial mid-latitude fjords (e.g., Doubtful Sound, Fiordland) sequester CO2 from phytoplankton and/or temperate forests. Overall, we propose that fjords are effective in sequestering OCbio and re-burying OCpetro. Based on our study, we hypothesize that climate change will have a semi-predictable impact on fjords' OC cycling in the near future.