Ongoing Buildup of Refractory Organic Carbon in Boreal Soils During the Holocene
R. H. Smittenberg,1*
T. I. Eglinton,2
S. Schouten,1
J. S. Sinninghe Damsté1
Radiocarbon ages of vascular plant wax–derived
n-alkanes
preserved in well-dated Holocene sediments in an anoxic fjord
(Saanich Inlet, Canada) were found to be not only substantially
older than the depositional age but increasingly so during the
Holocene. Assuming that
n-alkanes serve as a proxy for recalcitrant
terrigenous organic matter, this indicates that the accumulation
of refractory organic carbon in soils that developed after the
deglaciation of the American Pacific Northwest is ongoing and
may still be far from equilibrium with mineralization and erosion
rates.
2 Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Present address: School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Box 355351, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. E-mail: smitten{at}u.washington.edu
