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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Biogeoscience
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1458322

Snowmelt seepage fluxes of dissolved organic matter in forest and grassland - a molecular-level case study from the Hainich Critical Zone Exploratory, Germany

Provisionally accepted
Chen Huang Chen Huang 1Simon A. Schroeter Simon A. Schroeter 1*Katharina Lehmann Katharina Lehmann 2Martina Herrmann Martina Herrmann 3,4Kai U. Totsche Kai U. Totsche 2,5Gerd Gleixner Gerd Gleixner 1,4*
  • 1 Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
  • 2 Institute of Geosciences, Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Thuringia, Germany
  • 3 Aquatic Geomicrobiology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Thuringia, Germany
  • 4 German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 5 Cluster of Excellence Balance of the Microverse, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Thuringia, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Snowfall/cover and snowmelt are essential determinants of winter soil processes/events that may force the biogeochemical dynamics of soils in temperate regions. Increasing variability of the European hydroclimate is expected to lead to more frequent intermittent warm periods, which cause snowmelt during winter and rapidly mobilize large amounts of dissolved organic matter (DOM). This study, conducted at the Hainich Critical Zone Exploratory in Germany, seeks to address a significant gap in understanding the molecular impacts of snowmelt-induced DOM flows and their ability to alter soil ecosystems rapidly. During two snowmelt events between January and March 2021, we observed that DOM concentration and composition varied more in forest soil seepage than in grassland soil seepage. Forest seepage showed a pronounced DOM flux peak and synchronous increases in the relative abundances of aromatic DOM components, indicating surface-derived transport of plant litter carbon. In the grassland, however, peak DOM fluxes were characterized by a marked increase in nitrogen-containing (N-containing) DOM components, indicating a predominance of microbial carbon. Notably, the unique DOM components specific to each ecosystem increased during peak fluxes in the forest but decreased in the grassland. We suggest that an overall higher molecular richness and the broader functional metabolic potentials in grassland may account for its relatively greater DOM stability compared to the forest during peak snowmelt events.

    Keywords: high resolution mass spectrometry, Molecular formula assignment, Soil processes, event, Lysimeter, climate impact

    Received: 02 Jul 2024; Accepted: 07 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Huang, Schroeter, Lehmann, Herrmann, Totsche and Gleixner. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Simon A. Schroeter, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
    Gerd Gleixner, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.