Factors controlling fluxes and coastal aquatic storage of carbon at the superhumid continental margin of the southern Andes

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Helge W. Arz; Professor Dr. Harald Biester, Ph.D.; Professor Dr. Rolf Kilian (†); Dr. Frank Lamy
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2009 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 111083487

To understand the role of carbon cycling in context of future global warming, investigations and quantifications of regional carbon fluxes are important to improve the knowledge of processes controlling the fate of carbon on a local and regional scales. During the Holocene globally important amounts of carbon have been stored reversibly in peat bogs and peaty soils as well as in sapropel-like sediments of fjords and lakes at the superhumid continental margin of southernmost Chile. However, the effect of changes in the westerly-controlled precipitation and temperature as well as sea level fluctuations on the carbon budget is still unexplored. While previous studies concentrated on the organic carbon accumulation in peaty soils, this project aims to analyse and quantify the carbon transfer (as dissolved and particulate organic carbon; DOC, POC) from terrestrial into aquatic reservoirs in function of climatic, morphological, and ecological factors at selected representative sites. Furthermore, the controlling mechanism of the quatic accumulation and remineralisation of organic matter will be investigated based on sediment cores from lakes and fjords along a 200 km long transect across the southernmost Chilean continental margin. The project tries to improve the knowledge of processes and controlling mechanism of carbon sinks and remobilisation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants