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Understanding the role of terrestrial and marine carbon in the mid-latitude fjords of Scotland

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Date
11/11/2022
Author
Smeaton, Craig
Austin, William
Funder
BBSRC
Grant ID
BB/M026620/1
Keywords
Carbon
Fjord
Scotland
Sediment
Isotopes
Mixing model
Nitrogen
Soil erosion
Mid-latitude
Marine
Terrestrial
Coastal
Carbon budget
GC Oceanography
GE Environmental Sciences
QE Geology
Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
Earth-Surface Processes
Oceanography
Environmental Science(all)
Environmental Chemistry
Global and Planetary Change
3rd-DAS
SDG 13 - Climate Action
SDG 14 - Life Below Water
SDG 15 - Life on Land
MCC
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Abstract
The sediments within fjords are critical components of the mid- to high-latitude coastal carbon (C) cycle, trapping and storing more organic carbon (OC) per unit area than other marine sedimentary environments. Located at the land-ocean transition, fjord sediments receive OC from both marine and terrestrial environments; globally, it has been estimated that 55% to 62% of the OC held within modern fjord sediments originates from terrestrial environments. However, the mid-latitude fjords of the Northern Hemisphere have largely been omitted from these global compilations. Here we investigate the mechanism driving the distribution of OC originating from different sources within the sediments of 38 Scottish fjords. From an array of fjord characteristics, the tidal range and outer sill depth were identified as the main drivers governing the proportions of marine and terrestrial OC in the sediments. Utilizing this relationship, we estimate that on average 52 ± 10% of the OC held within the sediments of all Scotland’s fjords is terrestrial in origin. These findings show that the Scottish fjords hold equivalent quantities of terrestrial OC as other global fjord systems. However, the analysis also highlights that the sediments within 29 % of Scottish fjords are dominated by marine derived OC, which is driven by local fjord geomorphology and oceanography.
Citation
Smeaton , C & Austin , W 2022 , ' Understanding the role of terrestrial and marine carbon in the mid-latitude fjords of Scotland ' , Global Biogeochemical Cycles , vol. 36 , no. 11 , e2022GB007434 . https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GB007434
Publication
Global Biogeochemical Cycles
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GB007434
ISSN
0886-6236
Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2022. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
This work was supported by the Scottish Blue Carbon Forum. Additional, sample collection was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the manuscript submitted to Global Biogeochemical Cycles Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) (BB/M026620/01). NERC also supported the analysis within this project through the NERC Life Science Mass Spectrometry Facility (CEH_L_098_11_2015 and CEH_L-155-05-2018).
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/26387

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