Organic Carbon in Antarctic Snow: Spatial Trends and Possible Sources

Organic carbon records in Antarctic snow are sparse despite the fact that it is of great significance to global carbon dynamics, snow photochemistry, and air–snow exchange processes. Here, surface snow total organic carbon (TOC) along with sea-salt Na+, dust, and microbial load of two geographically distinct traverses in East Antarctica are presented, viz. Princess Elizabeth Land (PEL, coast to 180 km inland, Indian Ocean sector) and Dronning Maud Land (DML, ∼110–300 km inland, Atlantic Ocean sector). TOC ranged from 88 ± 4 to 928 ± 21 μg L–1 in PEL and 13 ± 1 to 345 ± 6 μg L–1 in DML. TOC exhibited considerable spatial variation with significantly higher values in the coastal samples (p < 0.001), but regional variation was insignificant within the two transects beyond 100 km (p > 0.1). Both distance from the sea and elevation influenced TOC concentrations. TOC also showed a strong positive correlation with sea-salt Na+ (p < 0.001). In addition to marine contribution, in situ microorganisms accounted for 365 and 320 ng carbon L–1 in PEL and DML, respectively. Correlation with dust suggests that crustal contribution of organic carbon was marginal. Though TOC was predominantly influenced by marine sources associated with sea-spray aerosols, local microbial contributions were significant in distant locations having minimal sea-spray input.