Weathering dataset collected from climate-threatened glacial river headwaters on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains (2019-2021)

DOI

Here we provide a biogeochemical dataset containing weathering-specific parameters that we collected between 2019-2021 from the headwaters of three rivers (Sunwapta-Athabasca, North Saskatchewan, and Bow) which originate from the glacierized eastern slopes of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Geochemical weathering can be extremely pronounced in glacierized watersheds due to large quantities of fresh glacial flour, which in turn can impact both local and global carbon budgets depending on the type of weathering that occurs. However, despite glaciers serving as hotspots of geochemical weathering globally, we still know little about how the type and magnitude of various geochemical weathering reactions change downriver of glaciers, and how this effect may change seasonally or interannually. Our dataset begins to address this.River sampling sites were visited monthly in 2019 and 2020 during the open water season (OWS), beginning during snowmelt in late May/early June, through peak glacial melt in July/August, then during the receding flow period in September/October. Additional samples were collected twice in winter (December 2019, January 2021) during base flow, but only at sites where it was safe to do so. In general, at each river sampling site and time, atmospheric CO2(g) and dissolved in situ riverine CO2(aq) concentrations were directly measured with a Vaisala CARBOCAP® GM70 Hand-Held CO2 Meter fitted with a 0 - 2000 ppm GMP222 CO2 probe sealed in a tight Teflon sleeve. Using clean field sampling protocols, we also collected samples for the analyses of δ13C-dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and Δ14C-DIC; δ13C-particulate inorganic carbon (PIC); sulfate isotopes (δ34S-SO4, δ18O-SO4), and radiogenic strontium (87Sr/86Sr).

Identifier
DOI https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.972842
Metadata Access https://ws.pangaea.de/oai/provider?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=datacite4&identifier=oai:pangaea.de:doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.972842
Provenance
Creator Serbu, Jessica ORCID logo; Tank, Suzanne; Peucker-Ehrenbrink, Bernhard (ORCID: 0000-0002-3819-992X); St.Louis, Vincent
Publisher PANGAEA
Publication Year 2024
Funding Reference Alberta Conservation Association https://doi.org/10.13039/100007583 Crossref Funder ID 030-00-90-140/1016 https://www.ab-conservation.com/grants-program/summaries/details/?id=97585fda-1201-11ee-be56-0242ac120002 Impacts of rapid glacial melt on downstream river freshwater quality and food webs in Banff and Jasper National Parks; Government of Canada https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000023 Crossref Funder ID 29000-RES0046243 https://www.canadianmountainnetwork.ca/research/current/from-the-mountains-to-our-tables From the Mountains to Our Tables: Freshwater Security in Three Canadian Eastern Rocky Mountain Watersheds; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000038 Crossref Funder ID RGPIN-2019-04272 https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/professors-professeurs/grants-subs/dgigp-psigp_eng.asp The impacts of rapidly receding glaciers on proglacial freshwater resources and ecological services
Rights Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Dataset
Format text/tab-separated-values
Size 2389 data points
Discipline Biogeochemistry; Biospheric Sciences; Geosciences; Natural Sciences
Spatial Coverage (-118.101W, 51.285S, -115.984E, 52.916N); Rocky Mountains, Canada
Temporal Coverage Begin 2019-05-14T00:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2023-06-14T00:00:00Z