Regional variability in the atmospheric nitrogen deposition signal and its transfer to the sediment record in Greenland lakes

Anderson, NJ, Curtis, CJ, Whiteford, EJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2411-7591, Jones, VJ, McGowan, S, Simpson, GL and Kaiser, J, 2018. Regional variability in the atmospheric nitrogen deposition signal and its transfer to the sediment record in Greenland lakes. Limnology and Oceanography, 63 (5), pp. 2250-2265. ISSN 0024-3590

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Abstract

Disruption of the nitrogen cycle is a major component of global environmental change. δ15N in lake sediments is increasingly used as a measure of reactive nitrogen input but problematically, the characteristic depleted δ15N signal is not recorded at all sites. We used a regionally replicated sampling strategy along a precipitation and N-deposition gradient in SW Greenland to assess the factors determining the strength of δ15N signal in lake sediment cores. Analyses of snowpack N and δ15N-NO3 and water chemistry were coupled with bulk sediment δ15N. Study sites cover a gradient of snowpack δ15N (ice sheet: −6‰; coast −10‰), atmospheric N deposition (ice sheet margin: ∼ 0.2 kg ha−1 yr−1; coast: 0.4 kg ha−1 yr−1) and limnology. Three 210Pb-dated sediment cores from coastal lakes showed a decline in δ15N of ca.−1‰ from ∼ 1860, reflecting the strongly depleted δ15N of snowpack N, lower in-lake total N (TN) concentration (∼ 300 μg N L−1) and a higher TN-load. Coastal lakes have 3.7–7.1× more snowpack input of nitrate than inland sites, while for total deposition the values are 1.7–3.6× greater for lake and whole catchment deposition. At inland sites and lakes close to the ice-sheet margin, a lower atmospheric N deposition rate and larger in-lake TN pool resulted in greater reliance on N-fixation and recycling (mean sediment δ15N is 0.5–2.5‰ in most inland lakes; n = 6). The primary control of the transfer of the atmospheric δ15N deposition signal to lake sediments is the magnitude of external N inputs relative to the in-lake N-pool.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Limnology and Oceanography
Creators:	Anderson, N.J., Curtis, C.J., Whiteford, E.J., Jones, V.J., McGowan, S., Simpson, G.L. and Kaiser, J.
Publisher:	Wiley on behalf of the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography
Date:	September 2018
Volume:	63
Number:	5
ISSN:	0024-3590
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1002/lno.10936 DOI
Rights:	© 2018 the authors. Limnology and Oceanography published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. 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.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	27 Jul 2018 09:59
Last Modified:	17 Jul 2019 03:00
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/34187

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