Mineral-bound organic carbon exposed by hillslope thermokarst terrain: case study in Cape Bounty, Canadian High Arctic

Abstract

Abstract. Arctic landscapes could add 55–230 Pg of carbon (in CO₂ equivalent) to the atmosphere, through CO₂ and CH₄ emissions, by the end of this century. These estimates could be quantified more accurately by constraining the contribution of rapid thawing processes such as thermokarst landscapes to permafrost carbon loss, and by investigating the exposed organic carbon (OC) interacting with mineral surfaces or metallic cations, i.e., the nature of these interactions and what controls their relative abundance. Here, we investigate two contrasted types of hillslope thermokarst landscapes: an Active Layer Detachment (ALD) which is a one-time event, and a Retrogressive Thaw Slump (RTS) which repeats annually during summer months in the Cape Bounty Arctic Watershed Observatory (Melville Island, Canada). We analyzed mineralogy, total and soluble element concentrations, total OC and mineral-OC interactions within the headwalls of both disturbances, and within corresponding undisturbed profiles. Our results show that OC stabilized by chemical bonds account for 13 ± 5 % of total OC in the form of organo-metallic complexes and up to 6 ± 2 % associated with poorly crystalline iron oxides. If we add the mechanisms of physical protection of particulate organic matter in aggregates and larger molecules stabilized by chemical bonds, we reach 64 ± 10 % of the total OC being stabilized. Importantly, we observe a decrease in the proportion of mineral-bound OC in the deeper layers exposed by the retrogressive thaw slump: the proportion of organo-metallic complexes drops from ~18 % in surface samples to ~1 % in the deepest samples. These results therefore suggest that the OC exposed by thermokarst disturbances at Cape Bounty is protected by interactions with minerals to a certain extent, but that deep thaw features could expose OC more readily accessible to degradation.