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Permafrost thaw in continental lowlands produces large number of thermokarst (thaw) lakes, which act as a major regulator of carbon (C) storage in sediments and C emission in the atmosphere. Here we studied thaw lakes of the NE European permafrost peatlands - shallow water bodies located within frozen peat bogs and receiving the majority of their water input from lateral (surface) runoff. We also conducted mesocosm experiments via interacting lake waters with frozen peat and dominant ground vegetation - lichen and moss. There was a systematic decrease in concentrations of dissolved C, CO 2 , nutrients and metals with an increase in lake size, corresponding to temporal evolution of the water body and thermokarst development. We hypothesized that ground vegetation and frozen peat provide the majority of C, nutrients and inorganic solutes in the water column of these lakes, and that microbial processing of terrestrial organic matter controls the pattern of CO 2 and nutrient concentrations in thermokarst lakes. Substrate mass-normalized C, nutrient (N, P, K), major and trace metal release was maximal in moss mesocosms. After first 16 h of reaction, the pCO 2 increased ten-fold in mesocosms with moss and lichen; this increase was much less pronounced in experiments with permafrost peat. Overall, moss and lichen were the dominant factors controlling the enrichment of the lake water in organic C, nutrients, and trace metals and rising the CO 2 concentration. The global significance of obtained results is that the changes in ground vegetation, rather than mere frozen peat thawing, may exert the primary control on C, major and trace element balance in aquatic ecosystems of tundra peatlands under climate warming scenario., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this publication and there has been no significant financial support for this work that could have influenced its outcome., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Acidophilic archaea of the archaeal Richmond Mine acidophilic nanoorganisms (ARMAN) group from the uncultured candidate phylum " Candidatus Micrarchaeota" have small genomes and cell sizes and are known to be metabolically dependent and physically associated with their Thermoplasmatales hosts. However, phylogenetically diverse " Ca Micrarchaeota" are widely distributed in various nonacidic environments, and it remains uncertain because of the lack of complete genomes whether they are also devoted to a partner-dependent lifestyle. Here, we obtained nine metagenome-assembled genomes of " Ca Micrarchaeota" from the sediments of a meromictic freshwater lake, including a complete, closed 1.2 Mbp genome of " Ca Micrarchaeota" Sv326, an archaeon phylogenetically distant from the ARMAN lineage. Genome analysis revealed that, contrary to ARMAN " Ca Micrarchaeota," the Sv326 archaeon has complete glycolytic pathways and ATP generation mechanisms in substrate phosphorylation reactions, the capacities to utilize some sugars and amino acids as substrates, and pathways for de novo nucleotide biosynthesis but lacked an aerobic respiratory chain. We suppose that Sv326 is a free-living scavenger rather than an obligate parasite/symbiont. Comparative analysis of " Ca Micrarchaeota" genomes representing different order-level divisions indicated that evolution of the " Ca Micrarchaeota" from a free-living " Candidatus Diapherotrites"-like ancestor involved losses of important metabolic pathways in different lineages and gains of specific functions in the course of adaptation to a partner-dependent lifestyle and specific environmental conditions. The ARMAN group represents the most pronounced case of genome reduction and gene loss, while the Sv326 lineage appeared to be rather close to the ancestral state of the " Ca Micrarchaeota" in terms of metabolic potential. IMPORTANCE The recently described superphylum DPANN includes several phyla of uncultivated archaea with small cell sizes, reduced genomes, and limited metabolic capabilities. One of these phyla, " Ca Micrarchaeota," comprises an enigmatic group of archaea found in acid mine drainage environments, the archaeal Richmond Mine acidophilic nanoorganisms (ARMAN) group. Analysis of their reduced genomes revealed the absence of key metabolic pathways consistent with their partner-associated lifestyle, and physical associations of ARMAN cells with their hosts were documented. However, " Ca Micrarchaeota" include several lineages besides the ARMAN group found in nonacidic environments, and none of them have been characterized. Here, we report a complete genome of " Ca Micrarchaeota" from a non-ARMAN lineage. Analysis of this genome revealed the presence of metabolic capacities lost in ARMAN genomes that could enable a free-living lifestyle. These results expand our understanding of genetic diversity, lifestyle, and evolution of " Ca Micrarchaeota.", (Copyright © 2020 American Society for Microbiology.)

Midlatitude anthropogenic mercury (Hg) emissions and discharge reach the Arctic Ocean (AO) by atmospheric and oceanic transport. Recent studies suggest that Arctic river Hg inputs have been a potentially overlooked source of Hg to the AO. Observations on Hg in Eurasian rivers, which represent 80% of freshwater inputs to the AO, are quasi-inexistent, however, putting firm understanding of the Arctic Hg cycle on hold. Here, we present comprehensive seasonal observations on dissolved Hg (DHg) and particulate Hg (PHg) concentrations and fluxes for two large Eurasian rivers, the Yenisei and the Severnaya Dvina. We find large DHg and PHg fluxes during the spring flood, followed by a second pulse during the fall flood. We observe well-defined water vs. Hg runoff relationships for Eurasian and North American Hg fluxes to the AO and for Canadian Hg fluxes into the larger Hudson Bay area. Extrapolation to pan-Arctic rivers and watersheds gives a total Hg river flux to the AO of 44 ± 4 Mg per year (1σ), in agreement with the recent model-based estimates of 16 to 46 Mg per year and Hg/dissolved organic carbon (DOC) observation-based estimate of 50 Mg per year. The river Hg budget, together with recent observations on tundra Hg uptake and AO Hg dynamics, provide a consistent view of the Arctic Hg cycle in which continental ecosystems traffic anthropogenic Hg emissions to the AO via rivers, and the AO exports Hg to the atmosphere, to the Atlantic Ocean, and to AO marine sediments., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Photo-induced degradation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and organo-mineral colloids is one of the major factor responsible for transformation of DOM and dissolved metals in boreal and subarctic waters. In contrast to fairly good understanding of this process in inland waters of high latitude zone, the transformation of riverine DOM and associated trace element (TE) colloids in the Arctic estuaries remains virtually unknown. We incubated, under sunlight in outdoor pools, quartz reactors filled with mixtures of sterile filtered riverine and estuarine water. The water samples were collected in the estuarine zone of the largest European Arctic river, Severnaya Dvina. After 1month of exposure to sunlight, ≤5% change of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration and specific ultraviolet (254nm) absorption occurred. This decrease was within the experimental uncertainty and it implies quite high resistance of river dissolved organic matter to photo-degradation in this estuary. Moreover, very low photodegradability of DOM in the freshwater point of the Severnaya Dvina River may require revisiting the current paradigm of the importance of DOC photolysis in large Arctic rivers. A novel finding was that the percentages of overall removal of Fe and some insoluble elements were quite similar across the full range of studied salinities, whereas the apparent rate of metal removal decreased with the increase of salinity. Overall, the salinity weakly impacted the removal of riverine DOC and metals in the estuarine water via photolysis and coagulation under sunlight. As a result, photoreactivity of DOM and dissolved metals in riverine end members corrected for estuarine dilution can be used to approximate the photolytic transformation of riverine material in the Arctic coastal zone., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The colloidal distribution and size fractionation of organic carbon (OC), major elements and trace elements (TE) were studied in a seasonally stratified, organic-rich boreal lake, Lake Svyatoe, located in the European subarctic zone (NW Russia, Arkhangelsk region). This study took place over the course of 4 years in both winter and summer periods using an in situ dialysis technique (1 kDa, 10 kDa and 50 kDa) and traditional frontal filtration and ultrafiltration (5, 0.22 and 0.025 μm). We observed a systematic difference in dissolved elements and colloidal fractions between summer and winter periods with the highest proportion of organic and organo-ferric colloids (1 kDa-0.22 μm) observed during winter periods. The anomalously hot summer of 2010 in European Russia produced surface water temperatures of approximately 30°C, which were 10° above the usual summer temperatures and brought about crucial changes in element speciation and size fractionation. In August 2010, the concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) decreased by more than 30% compared to normal period, while the relative proportion of organic colloids decreased from 70-80% to only 20-30% over the full depth of the water column. Similarly, the proportion of colloidal Fe decreased from 90-98% in most summers and winters to approximately 60-70% in August 2010. During this hot summer, measurable and significant (>30% compared to other periods) decreases in the colloidal fractions of Ca, Mg, Sr, Ba, Al, Ti, Ni, As, V, Co, Y, all rare earth elements (REEs), Zr, Hf, Th and U were also observed. In addition, dissolved (<0.22 μm) TE concentrations decreased by a factor of 2 to 6 compared to previously investigated periods. The three processes most likely responsible for such a crucial change in element biogeochemistry with elevated water temperature are 1) massive phytoplankton bloom, 2) enhanced mineralization (respiration) of allochthonous dissolved organic matter by heterotrophic aerobic bacterioplankton and 3) photo-degradation of DOM and photo-chemical liberation of organic-bound TE. While the first process may have caused significant decreases in the total dissolved concentration of micronutrients (a factor of 2 to 5 for Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn and Cd and a factor of >100 for Co), the second and third factors could have brought about the decrease of allochthonous DOC concentration as well as the concentration and proportion of organic and organo-mineral colloidal forms of non-essential low-soluble trace elements present in the form of organic colloids (Al, Y, Ti, Zr, Hf, Th, Pb, all REEs). It can be hypothesized that climate warming in high latitudes capable of significantly raising surface water temperatures will produce a decrease in the colloidal fraction of most trace elements and, as a result, an increase in the most labile low molecular weight LMW(<1 kDa) fraction., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)