Data associated with Significant floodplain soil organic carbon along a large high latitude river and its tributaries
Date
2018
Authors
Lininger, K. B.
Wohl, E.
Rose, J. R.
Leisz, S. J.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
High-latitude permafrost regions store large amounts of organic carbon (OC) in soils, and these stocks are vulnerable to climate warming. Estimates of subsurface carbon stocks do not take into account floodplains as unique landscape units that mediate and influence the delivery of materials into river networks. We present estimated floodplain soil OC stocks within the active layer (seasonally thawed layer) and within the top 1 m of the subsurface from a large field dataset in the Yukon Flats region of interior Alaska. We compare our estimated stocks to a previously published dataset, and find that the OC stock estimate using our field data is approximately 80% higher than the published dataset. We constrain the residence time of floodplain sediment and OC using radiocarbon dating. Our results indicate the importance of floodplains as areas of underestimated carbon storage, particularly because climate change may modify geomorphic processes in permafrost regions.
Description
The dataset describes floodplain soil samples taken from the Yukon Flats region in interior Alaska, which were analyzed for organic carbon stocks. These data were collected in the Yukon Flats Region during Summer 2014 and Summer 2015, and lab work was completed from 2014-2017.
Rights Access
Subject
soil organic carbon
Yukon River
Alaska
floodplain
fluvial geomorphology
permafrost regions
Citation
Associated Publications
Lininger, K. B., Wohl, E., Rose, J. R., & Leisz, S. J. (2019). Significant floodplain soil organic carbon storage along a large high‐latitude river and its tributaries. Geophysical Research Letter , 46, 2121–2129. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080996