A comprehensive dataset of microbial abundance, dissolved organic carbon, and nitrogen in Tibetan Plateau glaciers

Abstract

Glaciers are recognized as a biome dominated by microorganisms and a reservoir of organic carbon and nutrients. Global warming remarkably increases glacier melting rate and runoff volume, which have significant impacts on the carbon and nitrogen cycles in downstream ecosystems. The Tibetan Plateau (TP), dubbed “the water tower of Asia”, owns the largest mountain glacial area at mid- and low-latitudes. However, limited data on the microbial abundance, organic carbon, and nitrogen in TP glaciers are available in the literature, which severely hinders our understanding of the regional carbon and nitrogen cycles. This work presents a new dataset on microbial abundance, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and total nitrogen (TN) for TP glaciers. In this dataset, there are 5409 records from 12 glaciers for microbial abundance in ice cores and snow pits, and 2532 records from 38 glaciers for DOC and TN in the ice core, snow pit, surface ice, surface snow, and proglacial runoff. These glaciers are located across diverse geographic and climatic regions, where the multiyear average air temperature ranges from −13.4 to 2.9 ∘C and the multiyear average precipitation ranges from 76.9 to 927.8 mm. This makes the constructed dataset qualified for large-scale studies across the TP. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first dataset of microbial abundance and TN in TP glaciers and also the first dataset of DOC in ice cores of the TP. This new dataset provides important information for studies on carbon and nitrogen cycles in glacial ecosystems, and is especially valuable for the assessment of potential impacts of glacier retreat on downstream ecosystems under global warming. The dataset is available from the National Tibetan Plateau/Third Pole Environment Data Center (https://doi.org/10.11888/Cryos.tpdc.271841; Liu, 2021).