RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES, VOL. 21, ES4002, doi:10.2205/2021ES000758, 2021
Alexander Polukhin, Petr Makkaveev, Alexey Miroshnikov, Gennadii Borisenko, and Pavel Khlebopashev
Over the Arctic Ocean, the concentration of nutrients is limiting the development of phytoplankton, and hence the whole ecosystem. The main source of nutrients in the Arctic is river runoff and remineralization. However, there are local features of the functioning of coastal ecosystems, they are associated with the supply of nutrients from the glacier streams. Experiments with samples of rocks (represented by dolomitic shales and limestone) have been conducted to test the hypothesis that the main source of nutrients for coastal ecosystems are the rocks forming the bedrock of glacier streams. Exposure of rock samples in distilled water was held from 5 to 14 days and the content of nutrients has increased. As a result of laboratory experiments, the leaching rates were obtained. The rates are 0.021--0.15 mmol/m2 day and 0.1--2.5 mmol/m2 day for total nitrogen and total inorganic carbon, respectively. The concentration of nutrients (0.3--33 μM of nitrogen, 214--1928 μM of total inorganic carbon) in glacial streams confirms this assumption. Field and experimental data show that the glacial runoff from the Arctic archipelagos contains a significant amount of nutrients that can directly affect the activity of coastal ecosystems, making an important contribution to the primary production of the coastal areas in the Arctic.
Received 1 December 2020; accepted 5 February 2021; published 26 July 2021.
Citation: Polukhin, Alexander, Petr Makkaveev, Alexey Miroshnikov, Gennadii Borisenko, and Pavel Khlebopashev (2021), Leaching of inorganic carbon and nutrients from rocks of the Arctic archipelagos (Novaya Zemlya and Svalbard), Russ. J. Earth. Sci., 21, ES4002, https://doi.org/10.2205/2021ES000758.
Copyright 2021 by the Geophysical Center RAS.