Anhydrosugars as tracers in the Earth system

Suciu, Loredana G.; Masiello, Caroline A.; Griffin, Robert J.

doi:10.1007/s10533-019-00622-0

Cited by 39 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 224 publications

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“…25 The model may therefore not adequately account for enzymecatalyzed reactions, such as levoglucosan kinase or levoglucosan dehydrogenase, which cleave and phosphorylate the 1,6-intramolecular linkage, 74 and could be potentially common enzymes utilized by aquatic microorganisms. 75 Because of these nuances, the PyOM compound classes presented here are best used as bounding estimates for experimental validation, and for holistic comparison to NOM bioavailability. Still, the span of compounds investigated here, and their comparison to NOM pools, provides a breadth of PyOM investigation that is unfeasible without model-based approaches.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential bioavailability of pyrogenic organic matter resembles natural dissolved organic matter pools

Graham¹,

Song²,

Samantha³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Wildfires are increasing in severity and extent, creating many negative consequences for aquatic ecosystems. Pyrogenic materials generated by wildfires are transported across terrestrial landscapes into inland waters, where ~10% of organic matter pools may be comprised of black carbon (BC), a major component of pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM). Yet, the heterogeneity of PyOM from various fuels and burn conditions complicates efforts to understand its bioavailability. We used a substrate-explicit model to predict the energy content, metabolic efficiency, and rate of aerobic decomposition of representative PyOM compounds. This enabled us to systematically evaluate a full spectrum of PyOM chemistries that is unfeasible with laboratory experiments. The model relies on the elemental stoichiometry, allowing comparison of known PyOM chemistry to formula assignments of natural organic matter (NOM) from a recent high resolution mass spectrometry assessment of global aquatic NOM. Overall, we found the range of predicted bioavailability of PyOM was similar to NOM. Phenolic and BC molecules had lower metabolic efficiency than other PyOM and NOM compounds, and BC metabolism was less negatively impacted by oxygen limitation. In total, our work supports the recent paradigm shift regarding PyOM bioavailability, highlighting its potential role in global C emissions as the prevalence of wildfires increases.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential bioavailability of pyrogenic organic matter resembles natural dissolved organic matter pools

Graham¹,

Song²,

Samantha³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…However, the very weak correlation between levoglucosan concentrations and sedimentation rates from the sediment core ( R = 0.040, p = 0.745) rules out this impact. Levoglucosan may also be prone to post‐depositional degradation, although the knowledge of its impact on levoglucosan concentrations over long time scales is limited (Suciu et al, 2019). Levoglucosan is detected in considerable concentrations in sediments dating back to 200 ka (Schreuder et al, 2019), 270 ka (Elias et al, 2001), and 430 ka (Dietze et al, 2020), suggesting its long lifetime in sedimentary environments after deposition, possibly related to the adsorption to biogenic particles proposed by Schreuder et al (2018).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Combining sedimentary charcoal record with combustion‐derived molecular markers, such as levoglucosan (a monosaccharide anhydrate compound) and/or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), is a promising new way of reconstructing fire intensity (Argiriadis et al, 2018; Battistel et al, 2017; Dietze et al, 2019; Miller et al, 2017; Schreuder et al, 2019; Schüpbach et al, 2015; Shanahan et al, 2016; Sikes et al, 2013). Levoglucosan (1,6‐anhydro‐β‐D‐glucopyranose), a product of cellulose combustion, is a tracer for biomass burning due to its high emission factor and specific pyrogenic sources (Bhattarai et al, 2019; Schkolnik & Rudich, 2006; Simoneit et al, 1999; Suciu et al, 2019). It is only formed at low burning temperatures (150–350°C) and, thus, reflects low intensity fires (Kuo et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interaction of Fire, Vegetation, and Climate in Tropical Ecosystems: A Multiproxy Study Over the Past 22,000 Years

Ruan

Mohtadi

Dupont

et al. 2020

Global Biogeochemical Cycles

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Fire causes dramatic energy and matter exchanges between biosphere and atmosphere on a regional to global scale. Predicting fires, however, is hindered by the complex interplay of fire, climate, and vegetation. Paleo-fire records provide critical information beyond instrumental records that cover only the past few decades and may be used to assess the role of fire in large-scale and long-term environmental changes. Here we present a 22,000-year multiproxy record of fire regime from a sediment core retrieved offshore South Java, Indonesia. We use microcharcoal in combination with two molecular markers of burning, levoglucosan and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, to reconstruct fire occurrence as well as fire intensity in the past. We show that fire occurrence and intensity were high during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; around 21,000 years ago) and low during the Heinrich Stadial 1 and the early Holocene. Both fire regime and vegetation in tropical regions with high annual rainfall were primarily controlled by rainfall seasonality. However, fire additionally stabilized the savannah (rainforest)-dominated ecosystem during the LGM (early Holocene) but caused transitions between the two vegetation types during the deglaciation and the late Holocene. Changes in fire regime are often not resolved in paleo-records (Archibald et al., 2018; Han et al., 2016). Charcoal, commonly used as a proxy to indicate past fire activity, is a carbonaceous material produced by incomplete combustion of biomass with temperatures between 280°C and 500°C (Whitlock & Larsen, 2002). Microcharcoal abundance in marine sediments reflects general fire occurrence on a

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“…Absolute biomass availability and land cover change cannot be assessed quantitatively from pollen percentage data due to (partly) unknown taxa-specific pollen and NPP dispersal, productivity and preservation (Sugita, 2007), and our low sample resolution prevents the use of new quantitative land cover reconstructions (Theuerkauf and Couwenberg, 2018). However, more biomass availability is suggested by significantly higher abundance of tree and shrub pollen in interglacial sediments compared to glacial cold tundra-steppe assemblages dominated by herbs and grasses (Fig.…”

Section: Potential Source Areas and Degradation Pathways From Source mentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between low-temperature fires, climate and vegetation during three late glacials and interglacials of the last 430 kyr in northeastern Siberia reconstructed from monosaccharide anhydrides in Lake El'gygytgyn sediments

et al. 2020

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Abstract. Landscapes in high northern latitudes are assumed to be highly sensitive to future global change, but the rates and long-term trajectories of changes are rather uncertain. In the boreal zone, fires are an important factor in climate–vegetation interactions and biogeochemical cycles. Fire regimes are characterized by small, frequent, low-intensity fires within summergreen boreal forests dominated by larch, whereas evergreen boreal forests dominated by spruce and pine burn large areas less frequently but at higher intensities. Here, we explore the potential of the monosaccharide anhydrides (MA) levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan to serve as proxies of low-intensity biomass burning in glacial-to-interglacial lake sediments from the high northern latitudes. We use sediments from Lake El'gygytgyn (cores PG 1351 and ICDP 5011-1), located in the far north-east of Russia, and study glacial and interglacial samples of the last 430 kyr (marine isotope stages 5e, 6, 7e, 8, 11c and 12) that had different climate and biome configurations. Combined with pollen and non-pollen palynomorph records from the same samples, we assess how far the modern relationships between fire, climate and vegetation persisted during the past, on orbital to centennial timescales. We find that MAs attached to particulates were well-preserved in up to 430 kyr old sediments with higher influxes from low-intensity biomass burning in interglacials compared to glacials. MA influxes significantly increase when summergreen boreal forest spreads closer to the lake, whereas they decrease when tundra-steppe environments and, especially, Sphagnum peatlands spread. This suggests that low-temperature fires are a typical characteristic of Siberian larch forests also on long timescales. The results also suggest that low-intensity fires would be reduced by vegetation shifts towards very dry environments due to reduced biomass availability, as well as by shifts towards peatlands, which limits fuel dryness. In addition, we observed very low MA ratios, which we interpret as high contributions of galactosan and mannosan from biomass sources other than those currently monitored, such as the moss–lichen mats in the understorey of the summergreen boreal forest. Overall, sedimentary MAs can provide a powerful proxy for fire regime reconstructions and extend our knowledge of long-term natural fire–climate–vegetation feedbacks in the high northern latitudes.

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Anhydrosugars as tracers in the Earth system

Cited by 39 publications

References 224 publications

Potential bioavailability of pyrogenic organic matter resembles natural dissolved organic matter pools

Potential bioavailability of pyrogenic organic matter resembles natural dissolved organic matter pools

Interaction of Fire, Vegetation, and Climate in Tropical Ecosystems: A Multiproxy Study Over the Past 22,000 Years

Relationships between low-temperature fires, climate and vegetation during three late glacials and interglacials of the last 430 kyr in northeastern Siberia reconstructed from monosaccharide anhydrides in Lake El'gygytgyn sediments

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