Investigating hydrological transport pathways of dissolved organic carbon in cold region watershed based on a watershed biogeochemical model

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a significant component of regional and global carbon cycles and an important surface water quality indicator. DOC affects the processes of solubility, bioavailability and transport for a number of contaminants, such as heavy metals. Therefore, it is crucial to understand DOC fate and transport in the watershed and the transport pathways of DOC load. We modified a previously developed watershed-scale organic carbon model by incorporating the DOC load from glacier melt runoff and used the modified model to simulate periodic daily DOC load in the upper Athabasca River Basin (ARB) in the cold region of western Canada. The calibrated model achieved an overall acceptable performance for simulating daily DOC load with model uncertainties mainly from the underestimation of peak loads. Parameter sensitivity analysis indicates that the fate and transport of DOC load in upper ARB are mainly controlled by DOC production in the soil layers, DOC transport at the soil surface, and reactions in the stream system. The modeling results indicated that the DOC load is mainly from the terrestrial sources and the stream system was a negligible sink in the upper ARB. It also indicated that rainfall-induced surface runoff was the major transport pathway of DOC load in the upper ARB. However, the DOC loads transported by glacier melt runoff were negligible and only accounted for 0.02% of the total DOC loads. In addition, snowmelt-induced surface runoff and lateral flow contributed 18.7% of total DOC load, which is comparable to the contribution from the groundwater flow. Our study investigated the DOC dynamics and sources in the cold region watershed in western Canada and quantified the contribution of different hydrological pathways to DOC load, which could provide a useful reference and insight for understanding watershed-scale carbon cycle processes. [Display omitted] •The contributions of different hydrological transport pathways of DOC loads were quantified.•The calibrated model achieved satisfactory performance for DOC load despite underestimation of peak loads.•DOC load is mainly from the terrestrial source with stream system as a negligible sink.•Surface runoff is the primary transport pathway of DOC load.•Snowmelt-induced DOC load is mainly through lateral flow in the soil.