Biogeosciences (Jul 2014)

Revisiting the disappearance of terrestrial dissolved organic matter in the ocean: a <i>δ</i><sup>13</sup>C study

  • K. Lalonde,
  • A. V. Vähätalo,
  • Y. Gélinas

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-3707-2014
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 13
pp. 3707 – 3719

Abstract

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Organic carbon (OC) depleted in 13C is a widely used tracer for terrestrial organic matter (OM) in aquatic systems. Photochemical reactions can, however, change δ13C of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) when chromophoric, aromatic-rich terrestrial OC is selectively mineralized. We assessed the robustness of the δ13C signature of DOC (δ13CDOC) as a tracer for terrestrial OM by estimating its change during the photobleaching of chromophoric DOM (CDOM) from 10 large rivers. These rivers cumulatively account for approximately one-third of the world's freshwater discharge to the global ocean. Photobleaching of CDOM by simulated solar radiation was associated with the photochemical mineralization of 16 to 43% of the DOC and, by preferentially removing compounds depleted in 13C, caused a 1 to 2.9‰ enrichment in δ13C in the residual DOC. Such solar-radiation-induced photochemical isotopic shift could bias the calculations of terrestrial OM discharge in coastal oceans towards the marine end-member. Shifts in terrestrial δ13CDOC should be taken into account when constraining the terrestrial end-member in global calculation of terrestrially derived DOM in the world ocean.