The carbon cycle in fjords: analysing Patagonian fjord samples using a new ramped pyrolysis system

Home laboratory: GEOPS, Paris-Saclay, France
Host laboratory: Department of Geography, University of Saint Andrews, Scotland
 

Duration: 10 days, August 19–29, 2024

Fjords exist at the land-ocean interface. Despite representing less than 1% of the world's coastal surface area, fjords are responsible for an estimated 11% of the organic carbon buried in marine sediments. They are thus hotspots for global carbon burial. Little is known about how climate change is currently affecting the nature and fluxes of organic carbon in fjords, particularly in glacial environments. As a result, it is difficult to accurately predict how the changing climate will influence carbon fluxes towards fjords, particularly as glaciers melt. As a postdoc working with Sébastien Bertrand on an ANR-CPJ project examining the impacts of climate change on hydrological risks and the carbon cycle in high-latitude environments, my objective is to characterise seasonal and interannual variation in the nature and reactivity (i.e., oxidation capacity) of the particulate organic carbon that reaches the head of the Martinez Channel (Patagonia). To this end, I will travel to the University of St Andrews to use their newly acquired ramped pyrolysis system, available nowhere else, which will allow me to better determine the reactivity of the organic carbon found in my sediment samples.