Dissolved organic matter in wetland soils and streams of Southeast Alaska: Source, Concentration, and Chemical Quality

Abstract

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) transported from terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems is an important source of C, N and energy for the metabolism of aquatic heterotrophic bacteria. I examined the concentration and chemical quality of DOM exported from coastal temperate watersheds in southeast Alaska to determine if wetland soils are an important source of biodegradable dissolved organic carbon (BDOC) to aquatic ecosystems. I addressed this question through a combination of high resolution temporal and spatial field measurements in three watersheds near Juneau, Alaska by using a replicated experimental design that characterized DOM export from three different soil types (bog, forested wetland and upland forest) within each of the watersheds. PARAFAC modeling of fluorescence excitation-emission spectroscopy and BDOC incubations were used to evaluate the chemical quality and lability of DOM. Overall, my findings show that wetland soils contribute substantial biodegradable DOM to streams and the response in BDOC delivery to streams changes seasonally, with soil type, and during episodic events such as stormflows. In particular, the chemical quality of DOM in streamwater and soil solution was similar during the spring runoff and fall wet season, as demonstrated by the similar contribution of protein-like fluorescence in soil solution and in streams. These findings indicate a tight coupling between wetland DOM source pools and streams is responsible for the export of BDOC from terrestrial ecosystems. Thus, seasonal changes in soil-stream linkages can have a major influence on watershed biogeochemistry with important implications for stream metabolism and the delivery of labile DOM to coastal ecosystems. Soil DOM additions in small streams draining the three soil types showed that DOM leached from watershed soils is readily used as a substrate by stream heterotrophs and at the same time modified in composition by the selective degradation of the proteinaceous fraction of DOM. These findings indicate terrestrial DOM inputs to streams are an important source of C to support stream heterotrophic production. Thus, the production of protein-rich, labile DOM and subsequent loss in stream runoff has the potential to be an important loss of C and N from coastal temperate watersheds.