Abstract (from Biogeochemistry): Climate change is melting glaciers and altering watershed biogeochemistry across the globe, particularly in regions dominated by mountain glaciers, such as southeast Alaska. Glacier dominated watersheds exhibit distinct dissolved organic matter (DOM) characteristics compared to forested and vegetated watersheds. However, there is a paucity of information on how stream DOM composition changes as glaciers retreat and terrestrial ecosystem succession ensues. Importantly, it is unclear over what timescales these transformations occur. Here, we used bulk, isotopic and ultrahigh resolution molecular-level techniques to assess how streamwater DOM composition evolves in response to glacier retreat and subsequent [...]
