Molecular Signatures of Glacial Dissolved Organic Matter From Svalbard and 
Greenland

Kellerman, Anne M.; Vonk, Jorien; McColaugh, Stephanie; Podgorski, David C.; van Winden, Elise; Hawkings, Jonathan; Johnston, Sarah Ellen; Humayun, Munir; Spencer, Robert G. M.

doi:10.1029/2020GB006709

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

Molecular Signatures of Glacial Dissolved Organic Matter From Svalbard and Greenland

Authors

Kellerman, Anne M.
External Organizations;

Vonk, Jorien
External Organizations;

McColaugh, Stephanie
External Organizations;

Podgorski, David C.
External Organizations;

van Winden, Elise
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/hawkings

Hawkings, Jonathan
3.5 Interface Geochemistry, 3.0 Geochemistry, Departments, GFZ Publication Database, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum;

Johnston, Sarah Ellen
External Organizations;

Humayun, Munir
External Organizations;

Spencer, Robert G. M.
External Organizations;

External Ressource

No external resources are shared

Fulltext (public)

5006779.pdf
(Publisher version), 2MB

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Kellerman, A. M., Vonk, J., McColaugh, S., Podgorski, D. C., van Winden, E., Hawkings, J., Johnston, S. E., Humayun, M., Spencer, R. G. M. (2021): Molecular Signatures of Glacial Dissolved Organic Matter From Svalbard and Greenland. - Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35, 3, e2020GB006709.
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GB006709

Cite as: https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_5006779

Abstract

Glaciers and ice sheets cover over 10 % of Earth's land surface area and store a globally significant amount of dissolved organic matter (DOM), which is highly bioavailable when exported to proglacial environments. Recent rapid glacier mass loss is hypothesized to have increased fluxes of DOM from these environments, yet the molecular composition of glacially derived DOM has only been studied for a handful of glaciers. We determine DOM composition using ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry from a diverse suite of Arctic glacial environments, including time series sampling from an ice sheet catchment in Greenland (Russell Glacier) and outflow from valley glaciers in catchments with varying degrees of glacial cover in Svalbard. Samples from the Greenland outflow time series exhibited a higher degree of similarity than glacier outflow between glaciers in Svalbard; however, supraglacial meltwater samples from Greenland and Svalbard were more similar to each other than corresponding glacial outflow. Outflow from Russell Glacier was enriched in polyphenolic formulae, potentially reflecting upstream inputs from plants and soils, or inputs from paleosols overridden by the ice sheet, whereas Svalbard rivers exhibited a high level of molecular richness and dissimilarity between sites. When comparing DOM compositional analyses from other aquatic systems, aliphatic, and peptide-like formulae appear particularly abundant in supraglacial meltwater, suggesting the DOM quickly metabolized in previous incubations of glacial water originates from energy-rich supraglacial sources. Therefore, as glaciers lose mass across the region, higher-quality fuel for microbial degradation will increase heterotrophy in coastal systems with ramifications for carbon cycling.