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The age of terrestrial carbon export and rainfall intensity in a temperate river headwater system

  • Biogeochemistry Letters
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Abstract

Riverine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) supports the production of estuaries and coastal ecosystems, constituting one of the most actively recycled pools of the global carbon cycle. A substantial proportion of DOC entering oceans is highly aged, but its origins remain unclear. Significant fluxes of old DOC have never been observed in temperate headwaters where terrestrial imports take place. Here, we studied the radiocarbon age of DOC in three streams draining forested headwater catchments of the river Mulde (Ore Mountains, Germany). In a 4 week summer precipitation event DOC aged at between 160 and 270 years was delivered into the watershed. In one stream, the DOC was modern but depleted in radiocarbon compared to other hydrological conditions. The yield was substantial and corresponded to 20–52 % of the annual DOC yields in wet and dry years, respectively. The analysis of long-term data suggested that the DOC export in extreme precipitation events added to the annual yield and was not compensated for by lower exports in remaining periods. We conclude that climate change, along with additional processes associated with human activities, channels old soil carbon into more rapidly cycled carbon pools of the hydrosphere.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the staff at the Leibniz-Laboratory Kiel and at the Stable Isotope Facility Davis for analyzing the carbon isotopes. Chemical analyses were done by our colleagues in the chemical laboratories at the UFZ and at the SRA. We also thank the technical staff working in the monitoring program of the SRA and Erika Ruschak, Yvonne Rosenlöcher and Ina Siebert for technical assistance in the laboratory; Comments of Andreas Musolff, Andrew Kaus and of two reviewers who improved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jörg Tittel.

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Tittel, J., Büttner, O., Freier, K. et al. The age of terrestrial carbon export and rainfall intensity in a temperate river headwater system. Biogeochemistry 115, 53–63 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-013-9896-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-013-9896-3

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