Radiocarbon age-offset measurements reveal shifts in the transport mechanism and age of permafrost-derived organic carbon from Burial Lake, arctic Alaska from MIS 3 to present

Abstract

The stability of arctic permafrost and the carbon it contains are currently threatened by a rapidly warming climate. Burial Lake, situated in northwestern arctic Alaska, is underlain by continuous permafrost and has a uniquely rich set of paleoclimate proxy data that comprise a 40-ka record of climate and environmental change extending well into Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. Here, we examine the relationship between erosion, subsurface hydrology, and primary productivity from the Burial Lake sediments to improve our understanding of the links between climate, hydrology, sediment transport, and carbon mobility. The record is developed with radiocarbon (¹⁴C) age-offsets from two independent methods used to date the lake sediments: 1) ¹⁴C measurements on paired bulk sediment and plant macrofossils from the same stratigraphic layer of lake sediment and 2) ramped pyrolysis-oxidation (RPO) ¹⁴C analysis that separates fractions of organic carbon (OC) from a single bulk sediment sample based on thermochemical differences through continuous heating. As lakes capture and archive OC transported from the watershed, changes in the amount and relative age of permafrost-derived OC mobilized during past climatic variations can be documented by examining how age-offsets change over time. The Burial Lake sediment revealed higher age-offsets during the cold Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ∼29-17 ka) than the comparatively warmer post-glacial (∼17 ka-present) and the MIS 3 interstadial (∼40-29 ka) periods. The relatively warm, wet climate of the post-glacial period promoted both terrestrial and aquatic productivity, resulting in increased OC deposition, and it likely favored transport via subsurface flow of dissolved OC (DOC) sourced from soils. This resulted in a greater flux of contemporary OC relative to ancient OC into the lake sediment, lowering the average age offset to ∼2 ka. In contrast, the low-productivity conditions of the LGM resulted in slow soil accumulation rates, leaving ancient OC in a shallower position in the soil profile and allowing it to be easily eroded in the form of particulate OC (POC). Although the amount of total OC deposited in the lakebed during the LGM is small relative to post-glacial deposition, the majority is ancient, which leads to a relatively high average age offset of ∼9 ka. Finally, climate and environmental conditions of the MIS 3 interstadial were intermediate between those of the post-glacial and the LGM. As with post-glacial sediments, a relatively large amount of OC is present; however, the vast majority of it is ancient (more similar to the LGM), and it produces an average age offset of ∼6 ka. The Burial Lake radiocarbon record demonstrates the complexities of the thaw and mobilization of permafrost OC in arctic Alaska, including the balance between production, transport, deposition, remobilization, and preservation. This record highlights the importance of considering factors that both enhance and inhibit erosion (i.e. vegetation cover, lake level, precipitation) and the mechanisms of OC transport (i.e. subsurface flow or erosion) in predictions of future permafrost response to changes in climate.