Arctic Great Rivers Observatory GRO

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Arctic Great Rivers Observatory (GRO)

• PIs
• Bruce Peterson, MBL (Lead PI)
• Max Holmes, WHRC
• Jim McClelland, UTexas-Austin
• Pete Raymond, Yale

Major Partners Rob Striegl USGS R. Staples, DIAND
Water Resources, Canada A. Zhulidov, CPPI-S,
Russia S. Zimov, Northeast Science Station, Russia
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• Builds off of PARTNERS program (NSF-OPP-ARCSS)
• Main goal is to sample 6 major Arctic Rivers

River km3/y Mackenzie 308 Yukon 200 Kolyma
132 Lena 525 Yenisey 620 Ob 404 Mississippi
550
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Monitor Watershed Change
DOC
Atmospheric CO2
Steady State River DOC
Mobilization River DOC
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Biogeochemical Inputs to Arctic Ocean

• Arctic Ocean is 1 of global ocean volume
• Receives 10 of global freshwater
• New data demonstrate importance of ice-out
• Organic material exported more labile then
  previously thought

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Determine River Fingerprints
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Importance of Ice-out
Raymond et al GBC 2007
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Seasonality of water chemistry (changes between
winter low flow and the spring freshet)
Decrease at all rivers H2O-d18O H2O-d2H Alkalinit
y Chloride Sulfate Sodium Potassium Magnesium Calc
ium Nitrate Silicate Barium Lithium Molybdenum Rhe
nium Strontium Uranium Total 17
Variable among rivers PON-d15N DOC-d13C Total
dissolved phosphorus Ammonium Arsenic Cadmium Coba
lt Chromium Cesium Copper Iron Manganese Nickel Le
ad Rubidium Zinc Total 16
Increase at all rivers Total suspended
solids Particulate organic N (PON) Particulate
organic C (POC) POC-d13C Dissolved organic N
(DON) Dissolved organic C (DOC) DOC-D14C Lignin
Phenol Specific UV abs. (SUVA) pH Cerium Lanthanum
Neodymium Praseodymium Thallium Vanadium Total
16
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Sampling 2008-2010, 3trips/river/yr Sample
near mouth Extended trip near high flow (3
separate samples) Total 5samples/river/yr
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PARTNERS Sampling Scheme
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Education and Public Outreach

• Led by Max Holmes
• Focus on K-12 students, their teachers and
  community leaders
• Participate in sampling (high frequency sampling,
  lability experiments)
• Arctic-GRO training workshop- Moscow

peter.raymond_at_yale.edu