Maximum respiration rates in hyporheic zone sediments are primarily constrained by organic carbon concentration and secondarily by organic matter chemistry

Stegen, James C.; Garayburu-Caruso, Vanessa A.; Danczak, Robert E.; Goldman, Amy E.; Renteria, Lupita; Torgeson, Joshua M.; Hager, Jacqueline

doi:10.5194/bg-20-2857-2023

Maximum respiration rates in hyporheic zone sediments are primarily constrained by organic carbon concentration and secondarily by organic matter chemistry

Journal Article · Tue Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Biogeosciences (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2857-2023· OSTI ID:1991146

; ; Danczak, Robert E.; ; Renteria, Lupita; Torgeson, Joshua M.;

Abstract. River corridors are fundamental components of the Earth system, and their biogeochemistry can be heavily influenced by processes in subsurface zones immediately below the riverbed, referred to as the hyporheic zone. Within the hyporheic zone, organic matter (OM) fuels microbial respiration, and OM chemistry heavily influences aerobic and anaerobic biogeochemical processes. The link between OM chemistry and respiration has been hypothesized to be mediated by OM molecular diversity, whereby respiration is predicted to decrease with increasing diversity. Here we test the specific prediction that aerobic respiration rates will decrease with increases in the number of unique organic molecules (i.e., OM molecular richness, as a measure of diversity). We use publicly available data across the United States from crowdsourced samples taken by the Worldwide Hydrobiogeochemical Observation Network for Dynamic River Systems (WHONDRS) consortium. Our continental-scale analyses rejected the hypothesis of a direct limitation of respiration by OM molecular richness. In turn, we found that organic carbon (OC) concentration imposes a primary constraint over hyporheic zone respiration, with additional potential influences of OM richness. We specifically observed respiration rates to decrease nonlinearly with the ratio of OM richness to OC concentration. This relationship took the form of a constraint space with respiration rates in most systems falling below the constraint boundary. A similar, but slightly weaker, constraint boundary was observed when relating respiration rate to the inverse of OC concentration. These results indicate that maximum respiration rates may be governed primarily by OC concentration, with secondary influences from OM richness. Our results also show that other variables often suppress respiration rates below the maximum associated with the richness-to-concentration ratio. An important focus of future research will identify physical (e.g., sediment grain size), chemical (e.g., nutrient concentrations), and/or biological (e.g., microbial biomass) factors that suppress hyporheic zone respiration below the constraint boundaries observed here.

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Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth & Environmental Systems Science (EESS)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 1991146

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2229888

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA--167766

Journal Information:: Biogeosciences (Online), Journal Name: Biogeosciences (Online) Journal Issue: 14 Vol. 20; ISSN 1726-4189

Publisher:: Copernicus GmbHCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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