scholarly journals Depth-dependent molecular composition and photo-reactivity of dissolved organic matter in a boreal lake under winter and summer conditions

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 6945-6956 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Gonsior ◽  
P. Schmitt-Kopplin ◽  
D. Bastviken

Abstract. Transformations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in boreal lakes lead to large greenhouse gas emissions as well as substantial carbon storage in sediments. Using novel molecular characterization approaches and photochemical degradation experiments we studied how seasonal patterns in water column stratification affected the DOM in a Swedish lake under early spring and summer conditions. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations were consistently higher above the sediment when compared to surface waters throughout the sampling periods. Photobleaching alone could not explain this difference in DOC because the lake was covered by 40 cm-thick ice during late winter sampling and still showed the same DOC trend. The differences in the molecular diversity between surface DOM in winter and summer were consistent with ongoing photobleaching/decarboxylation and a possible bacterial consumption of photo-products. Additional photo-degradation experiments using simulated sunlight showed a production of highly oxidized organic molecules and low molecular weight compounds in all late winter samples and also in the deep water sample in summer. In the surface summer DOM sample, few such molecules were produced during the photo-degradation experiments, confirming that DOM was already photobleached prior to the experiments. This study suggests that photobleaching, and therefore also the ice cover during winter, plays a central role in surface DOM transformation, with important differences in the molecular composition of DOM between surface and deep boreal lake waters. The release of DOC from boreal lake sediments also contribute to this pattern. Photochemical degradation of DOM may be more extensive following ice-out and water column turnover when non-light exposed and thereby photosensitive DOM is photo-mineralized. Hence, the yearly DOM photo-mineralization may be greater than inferred from studies of recently light-exposed DOM.

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 8949-8975
Author(s):  
M. Gonsior ◽  
P. Schmitt-Kopplin ◽  
D. Bastviken

Abstract. Transformations of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in boreal lakes lead to large greenhouse gas emissions as well as substantial carbon storage in sediments. Using novel molecular characterization approaches and photochemical degradation experiments we studied how seasonal patterns in water column stratification affected the DOM in a Swedish lake under late winter and early summer conditions. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations were consistently higher above the sediment when compared to surface waters. Solely photobleaching could not explain this difference in DOC because the lake was covered by 40 cm thick ice during late winter sampling and still showed the same DOC trend. The differences in the molecular diversity between surface water DOM in winter and summer were consistent with summertime photobleaching/decarboxylation reactions and a possible bacterial consumption of photo-products. Additional photodegradation experiments using simulated sunlight showed a production of highly oxidized organic molecules and low molecular weight compounds in all late winter samples and also in the deep water sample in summer. In the surface summer DOM sample, few such molecules were produced during the photodegradation experiments confirming that DOM was already photobleached prior to the experiments. This study suggests that photobleaching, and therefore also the ice cover during winter plays a central role in surface DOM structural dynamics with important differences in the molecular composition of DOM between surface and deep boreal lake waters. The release of DOC from boreal lake sediments likely also contribute to this pattern. Photochemical degradation of DOM may be more extensive following ice-out and water column turnover when non-light exposed and thereby photosensitive DOM is photo-mineralized. Hence, the yearly DOM photo-mineralization may be greater than inferred from studies of recently light exposed DOM.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liudmila S. Shirokova ◽  
Artem V. Chupakov ◽  
Svetlana A. Zabelina ◽  
Natalia V. Neverova ◽  
Dahedrey Payandi-Rolland ◽  
...  

Abstract. Bio- and photo-degradation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) is identified as dominant vector of C cycle in boreal and high-latitude surface waters. In contrast to large number of studies of humic waters from permafrost-free regions and oligotrophic waters from permafrost-bearing regions, the bio- and photo-lability of DOM from humic surface waters of permafrost-bearing regions has not been thoroughly evaluated. Following standardized methods, we measured biodegradation (low, intermediate, high temperature) and photodegradation (one intermediate temperature) of DOM in surface waters along the hydrological continuum (depression → stream → thermokarst lake → river Pechora) within a European Russian frozen peatland. In all systems, there was no measurable (≥ 10 %) bio- or photodegradation of DOM over 1 month of incubation. It is possible that the main cause of the lack of degradation is the dominance of allochthonous refractory (soil, peat) DOM in all studied waters. Yet, all surface waters were supersaturated with CO2. Thus, this study suggest that, rather than bio- and photo-degradation of DOM in the water column, other factors such as peat porewater DOM processing and respiration of sediments are the main drivers of elevated pCO2 and emission in humic boreal waters of frozen peat bogs.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Benk ◽  
Robert Lehmann ◽  
Kai Uwe Totsche ◽  
Gerd Gleixner

<p>With surface systems changing rapidly on a global scale, it is important to understand how this will affect groundwater resources and ecosystems in the subsurface. The molecular composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) integrates essential information on metabolic functioning and could therefore reveal changes of groundwater ecosystems in high detail. Here, we evaluate a 6-year time series of ultrahigh-resolution DOM composition analysis of groundwater from a hillslope well transect within the Hainich Critical Zone Exploratory, Germany. We predict ecosystem functionality by assigning molecular sum formulas to metabolic pathways via the KEGG database. Our data support hydrogeological characterizations of a compartmentalized fractured multi-storey aquifer system and reveal distinct metabolic functions that largely depend on the compartment’s relative surface-connectivity or isolation. We show that seasonal fluctuation of groundwater levels, coinciding with cross-stratal exchange can substantially impact the local inventory of functional metabolites in DOM. Furthermore, we find that extreme conditions of groundwater recharge following pronounced groundwater lowstand cause strong alterations of the functional metabolome in DOM even in aquifer compartments, which usually show minimal variation in DOM composition. Our findings suggest that bedrock groundwater ecosystems might be functionally vulnerable to hydrogeological extremes.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa S. Catalá ◽  
Pamela E. Rossel ◽  
Félix Álvarez-Gómez ◽  
Jan Tebben ◽  
Félix L. Figueroa ◽  
...  

The potential of marine dissolved organic matter (DOM) for free radical scavenging has been extensively evaluated, however, the quantitative assessment of the antioxidant potential has been recently measured for the first time. The linkage of the DOM antioxidant potential to its molecular composition has not yet been examined. Following this line, this article takes a step forward by assessing, throughout a polarity-mediated fractionation, (1) the antioxidant capacity and phenolic content and (2) the molecular characterization of DOM in a more exhaustive manner. (3) The DOM antioxidant potential and phenolic content was linked to the molecular composition of DOM, which was molecularly characterized using ultrahigh resolution Fourier transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS). Antioxidant activity and phenolic content were quantified by the free radical 2,2’-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS⋅) and the Folin-Ciocalteu methods, respectively. We considered three types of different natural DOM samples: the deep North Pacific Ocean, the oligotrophic surface of the North Pacific Ocean and porewater from the sulfidic tidal flats of the Wadden Sea. Bulk porewater and its individual polarity fractions presented the highest antioxidant activity and phenolic content. DOM from the water column samples had lower antioxidant activity and phenolic content than porewater, but exceeded what it is commonly found in macroalgae, microalgae, fruits and vegetables with cosmeceutical purposes. Our values were similar to published values for terrestrial DOM. The variations in bioactivity were dependent on polarity and molecular composition. The high resolution and high mass accuracy used to determine the molecular composition of marine DOM and the chemometric and multistatistical analyses employed have allowed to distinguish molecular categories that are related to the bioactive potential. As a future perspective, we performed cytotoxicity tests with human cells and propose marine DOM as a natural ingredient for the development of cosmeceutical products.


2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (No. 12) ◽  
pp. 560-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.W. Mbuthia ◽  
J.H. Shariff ◽  
A. Raman ◽  
D.S. Hodgkins ◽  
H.I. Nicol ◽  
...  

Shelterbelts are important for the sustainability of agriculture because they provide a variety of benefits to farmers and the society. Several published papers demonstrate that integration of shelterbelts with agroecosystems offers positive outcomes, such as better yield, more congenial microclimate, and greater organic matter levels. Nonetheless, soil biological diversity, the driver of greater organic matter levels, has not been convincingly tested and verified yet. In addressing this gap, we measured abundance and diversity of populations of arthropods and fungi in three<br />11-year old shelterbelts integrated with pasture to determine whether a correlation exists between the abundance of and diversity in populations of arthropods and fungi in two seasons: late autumn-early winter (May&ndash;June 2011) and late winter-early spring (August&ndash;September 2011). Litter from the soil surface and soil from two depths were sampled at increasing distance from the midpoint of shelterbelts for the extraction of arthropods and isolation culturing of fungi. The relationship among distance, depth and biodiversity of different groups of arthropods and fungi was analysed using linear regression. We found that over both seasons arthropod abundance in the litter and soil declined with increasing distance from the midpoint of the shelterbelts, and with soil depth. However, fungi abundance in either season was not affected by proximity to the shelterbelt but increased with greater soil depth. Distance from the shelterbelt midpoints did not bear an impact on the diversity richness of both arthropods and fungi.


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