Spatiotemporal transformation of dissolved organic matter along an alpine stream flow path on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau: importance of source and permafrost degradation

Wang, Yinghui; Spencer, Robert G. M.; Podgorski, David C.; Kellerman, Anne M.; Rashid, Harunur; Zito, Phoebe; Xiao, Wenjie; Wei, Dandan; Yang, Yuanhe; Xu, Yunping

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6637-2018

Articles | Volume 15, issue 21

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6637-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6637-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 21

Research article

|

08 Nov 2018

Research article |

| 08 Nov 2018

Spatiotemporal transformation of dissolved organic matter along an alpine stream flow path on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau: importance of source and permafrost degradation

Yinghui Wang, Robert G. M. Spencer, David C. Podgorski, Anne M. Kellerman, Harunur Rashid, Phoebe Zito, Wenjie Xiao, Dandan Wei, Yuanhe Yang, and Yunping Xu

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https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6637-2018-supplement

Data sets

Permafrost carbon along alpine stream on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Y. Xu https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7301246.v1

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Short summary

With global warming, thawing of permafrost releases dissolved organic matter (DOM) into streams. By analyzing DOM along an alpine stream on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, we found DOM was mainly from the active layer, but with deepening of the active layer, the contribution of the deep permafrost layer increased, causing a change in the chemical composition of DOM. From the head- to downstream, DOM is undergoing rapid degradation, but some components are persistent and can be transported downstream.